Austin, Hart, and Shapiro: Three Variations on Law as an Entity Grounded in a Social Practice

Abstract

Social ontology is a branch of analytical philosophy that studies the nature of entities belonging to social reality. This paper examines, from the point of view of social ontology, three positivistic interpretations of the thesis that law is an entity grounded in a social practice. The three interpretations under examination are to be found in the theories by Austin, Hart and Shapiro. This task accomplishes two purposes. On the one hand, it illuminates new aspects of the theories by Austin and Hart by means of establishing to what extent they succeed in accounting for the intuition that law is something that we do together acting in groups. On the other hand, it will shed light on some Catedratico da Universidad de Externado (Colombia). Doutor em Filosofia pela University of Florida (Estados Unidos da America). Doutor em Direito pela Universidad de Salamanca (Espanha). Mestre em Filosofia pela University of Florida (Estados Unidos da America). Bacharel em Direito pela Universidad de Externado (Colombia). CARLOS BERNAL PULIDO 45 Revista Brasileira de Estudos Politicos | Belo Horizonte | n. 107 | pp. 43-98 | jul./dez. 2013 basic elements of Shapiro’s Planning Theory of Law that make it possible to understand law as a socioontological entity and that have been overlooked by the reviewers of Shapiro’s book, Legality.