A legal classification is valid. To say that a contract is valid means that the contract is legally authorized, binding and enforceable. There is no specific format that a contract must have to be valid, but certain requirements (elements) must be met. These challengers undermined Blackstone`s validity standards, but they did not replace them. A schism of validity divides American jurisprudence. There was no universally accepted standard of validity in American law. Academic theorists and legal educators favored Hart for his analytical clarity. Liberal justices favored Hart for expanding their power to enact new laws. Conservative practitioners and judges favored Blackstone because of its emphasis on the consent of the governed, autonomy of the law, predictability of the law, and morally just decisions.
Bentham`s Anarchical Fallacies argues that natural laws and natural rights are imaginary. « Natural rights are mere absurdities: natural and not prescribed rights, absurdities on stilts. » Positive law is the only true right. Only positive law can create real rights, and positive law requires the existence of a sovereign. There can be no rights apart from the existence of a sovereign command, and there can be no rights before the formation of a government. In short, the will of the sovereign offers its own standard of legal validity, which is not limited by morality, custom, or autonomy of the law. (Bentham 1843, pp. 501-05). Gustav Radbruch draws on the history of law to support a norm of validity that refers to the moral dimension of law.
Radbruch, once the leading German positivist, argues that the positivist separation of law and morality facilitated Hitler`s atrocities by legal means. Radbruch argues that German positivism “has left jurists and the people equally defenseless against arbitrary laws, cruel or criminal, however extreme. Ultimately, positivist theory equates right with power; Law exists only where there is power. (Radbruch 2006b, p. 13). In other words, positivism only works in the political dimension of law. The second historical restriction, emphasized by Locke and Blackstone, is the requirement of validity of the consent of the governed. Consent is not relevant to Hart`s legal validity. It is enough for every member of the population to obey Hart`s primary rules “for whatever reason.” “All motives,” as Hart`s critics point out, include terror and violence.
LawInfo.com Nationwide Bar Directory and Legal Consumer Resources Standards of legal validity are historically cyclical, and the cycle has continued in the United States into the 21st century. U.S. law originally adopted Blackstone`s two standards of validity based on moral principles and legal customs. Centuries of challengers have eroded these norms. Bentham, Austin, Holmes, and Hart undermined Blackstone`s moral standard by advocating the separation of law and morality. Pound undermined Blackstone`s usual norm by advocating abandonment of the common law. Legal educators have removed Blackstone from their curriculum. o All parties involved must be legally capable of concluding the contract (of legal age and mentally competent at the time of conclusion of the contract) and accept the conclusion of the contract.
o The contract must have a legal purpose (a contract is not legally valid if its stated purpose is illegal) o The contract must be an agreement by offer and acceptance (what is offered by the disclosing party is accepted by the consenting party, for example, the buyer makes an offer to purchase the property and the seller accepts this offer) Although oral contracts are sometimes acceptable, A valid contract is preferably written and signed by all parties o The contract must contain consideration, i.e. that offered and exchanged in the contract. In most real estate transactions, the counterpart is money. If a contract is valid, it becomes legally enforceable, meaning that, based on that contract, all parties involved may be legally obliged to do what the contract requires them to do. borrowed from Middle French or Latin; Middle French validates “healthy, with legal force”, borrowed from the Latin validus “healthy, robust, powerful, with legal authority”, adjective derived from the base of valēre “to have strength, to be healthy” – read more John Austin`s The Province of Jurisprudence Determined defines the political dimension of law as the only source of law and legal validity. Like Bentham`s “imperative” theory, Austin`s “command theory” of law establishes the will of the political leader as its own standard of legal validity. The sovereign may enforce his will by law without being limited by moral principles, customs or the autonomy of the law. The historicist school emphasizes the historical dimension of law. The historicist school recognizes legal practice as the main source of applicable law. Custom law provides a standard of legal validity that imposes customary limits on the coercive powers of the political leader. Major historians include Sir Edward Coke, John Selden, Sir Matthew Hale and Sir William Blackstone.
The moral dimension of law dominates Cicero`s jurisprudence. Cicero defines natural law as the perfect reason for commanding and forbidding. These principles are the only source of justice and represent the only measure of legal validity. « The true law is the right reason in accordance with nature. » (Cicero, De re Publica, 3.33). The third doctrine Hart opposes is Austin`s theory of the right of command. Hart rejects Austin`s theory for four reasons. First, Austin doesn`t realize that laws generally apply to those who enact them. Second, Austin ignores laws that grant public power, such as the power to legislate or decide, or laws that grant private powers to create or modify legal relationships. Third, Austin ignores laws that do not come from a ruler but from a general custom. Fourth, Austin ignores the continuity of legislative power characteristic of a modern legal system.
(Hart, 1994, p. 70). The historical dimension of the corpus makes customary law a source of enforceable law. The Corpus defines legal custom as the tacit consent of a people founded by ancient custom. Since custom proves the consent of the people, it is a source of law superior to positive or legal law. Legal provisions, if generally ignored, are treated as repealed laws. (Justinian, Digest, 1.1.3). Sir William Blackstone`s Commentaries on the Laws of England is the standard statement of common law jurisprudence. Blackstone established two standards of legal validity, one based on common law and the other on natural law.
So-called laws that do not meet these standards are not only “bad law”, they are “not a law”. (Blackstone 1838, p. 47). Aristotle uses the moral dimension of law to ensure natural justice in two ways.