Lon L Fuller

The Law in Quest of Itself Lon L Fuller 1st edition

Reprint of the first and only edition. Originally published: Boston: Beacon Press, 1966. [vi], 150 pp. (Beacon Series in Classics of the Law). Three lectures by the Harvard Law School professor examine legal positivism and natural law. In the course of his analysis Fuller discusses Kelsen's theory as a reactionary theory, and Hobbes' theory of sovereignty. He defines legal positivism as the viewpoint that draws a distinction "between the law that is and the law that ought to be..." (p.5) and interprets natural law as that which tolerates a combination of the two. He looks at the effects of positivism's continued influence on American legal thinking and concludes that law as a principle of order is necessary in a democracy.