ANU legal scholars re-enact Hart-Fuller debate

In 1957, the most influential legal philosopher of the 20th century gave a lecture at Harvard Law School. H.L.A. Hart (1907-92) had been invited to speak there by Lon L. Fuller (1902-78), himself a renowned philosopher of law.

So enraged was Fuller by Hart’s approach to law and justice, that he took it upon himself to answer Hart’s argument in detail. The two positions were published in a now legendary exchange in the pages of the Harvard Law Review the following year.

They offer diametrically opposed positions on key questions in thinking about law: what is the relationship between law and morality? What does it mean to interpret a legal provision? To what extent are lawyers and legal systems bound to follow the regulations of pernicious or even evil regimes? In what ways are law and justice connected, and in what ways are they different?

The debate between Hart and Fuller has been central to how students of law have thought about these vital questions for over sixty years. But although the essays they published really are a debate – an almost point by point repudiation of each other’s views – it can be hard to appreciate how vigorous and forthright and compelling it was.

So, in a dramatic innovation, this video "stages" the Hart-Fuller debate exactly as a debate — as if it were an episode of a telvisedinterview.

ANU College of Law scholars Professor Desmond Manderson FASSA, FAAL, FRSC and Associate Professor Joshua Neoh, representing Fuller and Hart respectively, set out their disagreements, using only the words written by the two great legal thinkers; and then answer questions from the live studio audience.

For the first time, the cut and thrust of the Hart-Fuller Debate can be fully appreciated. For the first time, these remarkable essays come to life, turning dry words into insight, passion and even wit. It’s the Hart-Fuller Debate, Jim, but not as we know it!

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