Questions on Hart Ch. VII and Cohen
1) Consider the following objection: Hart treats judges like umpires. But umpires' decisions are
binding; their interpretations of the rules are not (indeed umpires do
not issue interpretations of rules). Judges' interpretations of the law
are themselves law. That means that the law really is what judges say
it is.
2)
Is it just vagueness that makes the law indeterminate (as Hart
suggests) or do liberal canons of interpretation of legal rules also
contribute to indeterminacy?
3)
Is the transformation of the law of personal jurisdiction in
International Shoe (and in subsequent cases) a product of Cohen-style
legal realism?
4)
At pp. 835-36 and pp 839-40, Cohen offers something that looks like a
prediction theory of law. Does this theory suffer from the problems
that Hart identifies with prediction theories in pp. 136-47 of the
Concept of Law?