On secondary rules (1975)

This paper analyzes one of H. L. A. Hart’s central innovations in legal theory: the identification of a distinct category of secondary rules, comprising rules of recognition, rules of change, and rules of adjudication. Without engaging in the long-debated issue of whether these rules are, as Hart maintained, power-conferring rather than duty-imposing, the study proposes an alternative understanding of their unifying feature. It argues that what fundamentally characterizes these three types of norms is not their power-conferring nature—an attribute that fits uneasily with rules of recognition—but rather their relational structure: they are rules about rules, or second-order rules. In highlighting this structural commonality, the paper contributes to a clearer conceptual delineation of the nature and function of secondary rules within Hart’s legal framework and contemporary jurisprudence.