Conventions, Recognition, and the Practical Point of View

The idea that law is social is a truism in contemporary legal and social thought.Nevertheless, it is not easy to say exactly what this signifies.In a broad sense, this idea means that law is part of social life and, more precisely, that it is constituted through social interactions.This implies the rejection that law is something the existence conditions of which are independent of the social abilities of human beings.Moreover, since law is (at least partially) made of norms, the norms that are relevant to the understanding of law are also social, in the sense that the existence of norms depends on the social abilities of people and the historical interactions between them. 1 The theses mentioned in the previous paragraph have been developed intensively in recent decades in the social sciences and practical philosophy for a group of views known as Practice Theory.In this text, I will focus on one stream within this family of theories, more specifically the Hartian stream.This stream builds on the ideas of H.L.A. Hart, who in turn drew inspiration from the work of authors such as Ludwig Wittgenstein and Peter Winch. 2 Furthermore, I will interpret the Hartian views using selected tools from recognition theory to avoid the problems that some of Hart's most influential interpreters have faced.To achieve this, I will first introduce certain basic elements of Hart's proposal and show how it can be understood more generally as a trend in Practice Theory.In this context, I draw attention to how Hart sets out the so-called internal point of view for understanding norms (section 1).I will then focus on how some of Hart's most influential interpreters have understood his proposal based on the concept of convention 1 To say that norms are social means that they depend on social interactions, but it does not mean that every legal norm is a social norm.In the Hartian scheme, the rule of recognition is a social norm (v.Figueroa Rubio, 2022a, 2022b), but not necessarily every jurisprudential or statutory norm is also a social norm. 2 In this text I will deal with this specific trend.In order to understand its place in the broader