Research On Raz’s Service Conception Of Authority

Joseph Raz,a famous jurist and representative of the exclusive positivist school of law,analyzed the essence of legal authority,that is,the authority of law is practical authority,with sharp insight.Raz mentioned the importance of "reason" in analyzing legal authority more than once in his works and papers.The core difference between Raz’s legal authority theory and the positivist jurisprudence circles such as Austin,Carlson,Hart,etc.is that Raz does not believe that people’s obligation to obey the law does not have an initial or absolute reason.The biggest reason why the legal authority is accepted by the people of the legal audience is that the legal authority is "service-oriented".The legal authority that Raz thinks is not a privatization authority that serves the monarch’s rule or the interests of a certain class,but a neutral service authority that serves the whole society and the people.Legal authority is a kind of authority of exclusive application.In any democratic modern society ruled by law,legal authority should always give priority to its application side by side.Laws should be obeyed first and must be respected.However,people’s choice to respect laws is also based on the fact that legal authority always plays a neutral role as an arbitrator.When Raz proved that legal authority is a service authority,he introduced three propositions: "dependency proposition","legitimacy proposition" and "exclusivity proposition".In the "dependency proposition",Raz argues that the effectiveness of law and the authority of law should come from facts rather than the morality discussed by natural law.Legal authority should be the authority of facts,and morality should not be the basis for judging whether law should exist and its specific content.In the "proposition of legitimacy",Raz pointed out that there is no initial or absolute obligation to obey the law.The reason why people recognize the legal authority and spontaneously follow the guidance of the legal authority and give up self-action is that the legal authority should be service-oriented and legitimate while the illegal legal authority is mandatory and forced to obey the authoritative instructions.In the "Exclusivity Proposition",Raz believes that people are willing to give up their own reasons for action and follow the guidance of legal authority because in a society ruled by law,legal authority is exclusive and applicable,and will not be mixed with other factors such as moral judgment.This kind of legal judgment from pure practice will not change due to other factors.It is relatively stable,so people are willing to accept the instructions of legal authority,so as to respect the law.This kind of service legal authority allows people who respect the law to legally challenge the authority of the law and criticize the loopholes and flaws of the authority on this premise,and smoothly solve the long-term conflict between legal authority and moral requirements.