Thanks to Bill Irwin for valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper.
1467-9337/asset/RAJU_left.gif?v=1&s=c562cd678f15fd5f05db1d364cdf3e65c9b48560)
1467-9337/asset/RAJU_right.gif?v=1&s=0c1b6db43d1d8bde5f9169959b1337753b5cba71)
Legislating Morality: Scoring the Hart-Devlin Debate after Fifty Years
Article first published online: 20 MAY 2012
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9337.2012.00506.x
© 2012 The Author. Ratio Juris © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Additional Information
How to Cite
BASSHAM, G. (2012), Legislating Morality: Scoring the Hart-Devlin Debate after Fifty Years. Ratio Juris, 25: 117–132. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9337.2012.00506.x
- †
Thanks to Bill Irwin for valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper.
Publication History
- Issue published online: 20 MAY 2012
- Article first published online: 20 MAY 2012
- Abstract
- Article
- References
- Cited By
Abstract
It has now been more than 50 years since H. L. A Hart and Lord Patrick Devlin first squared off in perhaps the most celebrated jurisprudential debate of the twentieth-century (1959–1967). The central issue in that dispute—whether the state may criminalize immoral behavior as such—continues to be debated today, but in a vastly changed legal landscape. In this article I take a fresh look at the Hart-Devlin debate in the light of five decades of social and legal changes.