On legal things to do: external and internal legal reasons

Abstract

The normativity of law is usually discussed by reference to the concept of reasons for action. Legal philosophers frequently avoid referring to the dispute among different conceptions of reasons in moral philosophy. This paper briefly presents basic positions in this dispute (distinguishing motivating and justificatory reasons, and the dispute between internalism, counterfactual internalism, and externalism). Brian Bix appears to adopt the internalist stance. The paper argues that internalism is not able to explain the normativity of law, since legal reasons are objective and external, as they do not depend on actual knowledge and motivation of the agent. A specific problem arises with respect to the rules of recognition. If the rule of recognition is a duty-imposing rule, the reasons for the official to follow this rule must be internal. It is argued that the rule of recognition is not a legal rule and the obligation to follow it is not a legal obligation.