Course:Law3020/2014WT1/Group R/Separation Thesis

Hart's Separation Thesis

The "separation thesis" is easily understood as the assertion that law and morality operate within two distinctly separate spheres. Essentially, legal rules exist independently from moral beliefs, but the two concepts will inevitably overlap in certain cases. These cases become known as the "penumbra" cases; cases where a legal decision needs to be made, and it becomes up to the judge's discretion whether to make this decision using either the moral or the legal sphere of reasoning.