On Lon.L.Fuller's Theory Of Concept Of Law

Among the schools of jurisprudence in the mid-20 th century,Lon.L.Fuller's legal thought,especially his legal concept theory was unique.The traditional natural law holds that law and morality are necessarily related,and that morality here often resorts to the substantive values of justice,rights and welfare,while the legal positivists who pioneered by H.L.A.Hart believe that there is no inevitable connection between law and morality.Fuller puted forward a kind of thought of procedural natural law.On the one hand,he thought that law and morality have an inevitable connection,but on the other hand,he had a limited understanding of the scope of morality and limited it to procedural morality,which was embodied in his "eight principles of rule of law".This is equivalent to walking out of a "middle road" between legal positivism and traditional natural law,and it is a very characteristic middle way.Fuller chose this intermediate path based on procedural value because of his dissatisfaction with legal positivism and traditional natural law.On the one hand,the legal concept of legal positivism moralism is not able to explain the important characteristics of law,on the other hand,the substantive morality and the law are connected to narrow the scope of the law,which violates our common sense and intuition about the law.This middle way seems to him to be the only reasonable theoretical way out.However,there is little discussion on Fuller's legal concept theory in the domestic academic circles,and the evaluation of its rationality is insufficient.So,there is an important theoretical question to be solved: Is Fuller's middle way successful?Fuller's legal concept theory is based on the basic attribute of "rules",and puts forward the procedural natural law composed of formal value by summarizing the requirements of the rule of law.The procedural natural law consists of eight principles of legality,and Fuller,as the standard of the validity of the law,promotes the law to become a better rule,thus benefiting the realization of the extraterrestrial goal of the law.However,the purpose of procedural natural law,which is served by the eight principles of rule of law,is not clear,and there are many problems in its theory.First of all,the eight principles of the rule of law can not explain the particularity of the law.Secondly,the eight principles of the rule of law and the concept of law,as the concept of degree,do not match.Third,the legal purpose is questionable,and both purposes are unreasonable.More importantly,the eight principles of the rule of law cannot be a necessary condition for the existence of law.These theoretical disadvantages led to the failure of Fuller's middle way.Therefore,the reasonable legal concept should be based on the amendment and transcendence of the natural law of procedure.First of all,the value of the rule of law should not be regarded as a standard of effectiveness of law,but as the ideal level of legal concepts.On this basis,the value of rule of law should go beyond procedural value and contain some basic substantive values.