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ESSAYS ON BENTHAM >' v;- ESSAYS ON BENTHAM Studies in Jurisprudence and Political Theory by H. L. A. HART CLARENDON PRESS • OXFORD // Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford 0x2 6dp London Glasgow New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland and associates in Beirut Berlin Ibadan Mexico City Nicosia Published in the United States by Oxford University Press, New York ©H.L.A. Hart 1982 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Hart, H.L.A. Essays on Bentham. 1. Bentham, feremy — Criticism and interpretation I. Title 192 B1574.B34 ISBN 0-19-825348-6 ISBN 0-19-825468-7 Pbk Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Hart, H.L.A. (Herbert Lionel Adolphus), 1907Essays on Bentham. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Bentham, feremy, 1748-1832 — Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. furisprudence — Addresses, essays, lectures. 3. Political science — Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Title. K334.H37 340’. 1 82-3601 ISBN 0-19-825348-6 (Oxford University Press) AACR2 ISBN 0-19-825468-7 (Oxford University Press: pbk.) Set by Hope Services, Abingdon Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Oxford by Eric Buckley, Printer to the University ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Five of the chapters of this book are corrected but substan¬ tially unchanged versions of previously published works, omitting matter dealt with elsewhere in this volume. These are Chapter I from the Modern Law Review (1973), Chapter II from Atti del Convegno Internazionale su Cesare Beccaria (Turin 1964), Chapter III from the Journal of Law and Economics xix (3) (1976), Chapter VII from Oxford Essays in Jurisprudence, 2nd series, ed. Simpson (Oxford 1973), Chapter VIII from the Yale Law Journal lxxx (1972). Parts of the Introduction and of four other chapters have been previously published as follows: Introduction in Proceedings of the British Academy xlviii (1962) and American Law: The Third Century, ed. Schwartz (New York School of Law 1976); Chapter IV in the Ne w York Review of Books xxvii (8) (1980); Chapter V in Rechtstheorie ii (1) (1971); Chapter VI (in Italian) in Rivista di Filosofia (1966); Chapter IX in the Irish Jurist NS ii (1967). CONTENTS Abbreviations Introduction viii \ I The Demystification of the Law 21 II Bentham and Beccaria 40 III The United States of America 53 IV Natural Rights: Bentham and John Stuart Mill 79 V Bentham’s Of Laws in General 105 VI Legal Duty and Obligation 127 VII Legal Rights 162 VIII Legal Powers 194 IX Sovereignty and Legally Limited Government 220 X Commands and Authoritative Reasons 243 Index of Names 269 Index of Subjects 271 ABBREVIATIONS Works CW UC OLG PML Comment Fragment The Works of Jeremy Bentham published under the superintendence of John Bowring (11 vols., Edinburgh 1838-43). Roman numerals refer to volumes and Arabic numerals to pages. The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham, London 1968-. Bentham’s papers in the Library of University College London. Roman numerals refer to boxes and Arabic numerals to leaves. Of Laws in General by Jeremy Bentham (ed. Hart in CW, London 1970). An Introd