Abstract

Is law inherently coercive? A prominent issue in jurisprudence and philosophy of law is how coercion relates to both, individual legal norms, on the one hand, and the legal systems as a whole, on the other. In this vein, H.L.A. Hart and Robert Alexy have devoted part of their work to the problem of how law and coercion relate. The aim of this paper is to compare their approaches to this topic. The starting point will consist of presenting their respective views on the question of what the law is as well as the nuances attached to it. Then, Hart’s and Alexy’s positions on coercion’s place in the nature of law will be addressed. It is argued why their views are similar in some aspect and different in others. Hart’s and Alexy’s contributions are certainly of a paramount importance to the debates on the core problems of philosophy of law.