Legal Theory and Conceptual Analysis

Abstract This article introduces the current special issue on legal theory and conceptual analysis, a topic explored through the lens of a debate that in 2007 engaged Joseph Raz, Robert Alexy, and Eugenio Bulygin on the question of the relation between the concept and the nature of law. We set the stage for this debate by outlining a history of conceptual analysis around the question of what is meant by an idea or concept and what could count as an analysis of a concept, and whether the structure of concepts is definitional or paradigmatic. This overview draws a map of the methodological disputes which have shaped modern legal theory, and within which we can situate the debate among Raz, Alexy, and Bulygin. We conclude by noting that, despite their disagreements, these three thinkers all view conceptual analysis (and specifically the analysis of the concept of law) as central to the issue of the proper object of the theory of law.