Joseph Raz on Law’s Moral Claims

Joseph Raz famously argued that law necessarily makes moral claims. The present work evaluates that view, first looking briefly at problems raised by asserting that law ‘claims’ anything, but focusing primarily on the argument that law’s claim is ‘moral’. In particular, the article proposes that we take more seriously, as an alternative analysis, the idea that law makes (only or primarily) legal claims. It is a view with support (in various ways) from prominent figures like John Finnis, Matthew Kramer, and H. L. A. Hart, and it has the significant benefit of better reflecting the way we speak. The present work responds to objections raised to this view by John Gardner and others.