A central part of H.L.A. Hart's theory on legal positivism, in any legal system, the rule of recognition is a master meta-rule underlying any legal system that defines the common identifying test for legal validity (or "what counts as law") within that system. He thus articulates its application:

“	...to say that a given rule is valid is to recognize it as passing all the tests provided by the rule of recognition and so as a rule of the system. We can indeed simply say that the statement that a particular rule is valid means that it satisfies all the criteria provided by the rule of recognition.	”
	— H. L. A. Hart

In Hart's view, the rule of recognition arises out of a convention among officials whereby they accept the rule's criteria as standards that empower and govern their actions as officials.[1] The rule is cognizable from the social practices of officials acknowledging the rule as a legitimate standard of behavior, exerting social pressure on one another to conform to it, and generally satisfying the rule's requirements. To this end, as explained by Hart, the rule has three functions:

1. To establish a test for valid law in the applicable legal system,
2. To confer validity to everything else in the applicable legal system, and
3. To unify the laws in the applicable legal system.

According to Hart, any rule that complies with the rule of recognition is a valid legal rule. For example, if the rule of recognition were "what Professor Kang says is law", then any rule that Professor Kang spoke would be a valid legal rule.

This law-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

[edit] References