H. L. A. HART’S THEORY OF LAW: AN IGWEBUIKE READING

Abstract

Williams Idowu has considered the legal and moral implications of the Ogboni group in Yoruba land. Similarly, Kingsley Ufuoma Omoyibo has looked at the law from the perspective of the Etsako community of Edo State. All of these try to build a particular perspective to the universal reality of law. This particularization of the law is germane because, the life of the law is not in logic, but in experience. That is, experience is what determines the actual practice and implementation of laws. While these discourses on the African dimension to law and morality are relevant, there is still the need to further deepen the theoretical basis for such an approach to law. This is what this work is aimed at. It seeks to read a foremost legal theorist from the perspective of an African philosophical framework. This is with the view to showing that, the theoretical core of jurisprudence gives some room to the particularization of the law, especially through the path of indigenization. In what follows, the focus will be on Igwebuike philosophy and Hart’s theory of law. The submission of this essay is that the idea of a minimum content between law and morality which Hart insists on is the core of Igwebuike dimension in his jurisprudence. By this very token, Hart is a moderate positivist and also appreciates the basic tenet of natural law jurisprudence. Thus, the law is one thing in itself and the moral element complements its essence, but is not what makes its essence.