The Exception Proves the Rule
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Holton_The exception.pdf
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249.36 KB
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Adobe PDF
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Author(s)
Holton, Richard
Date Issued
December 2010
Journal
Journal of Political Philosophy
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell Pubishers
Citation
Holton, Richard. "The Exception Proves the Rule." Journal of Political Philosophy, Volume 18, Issue 4, pages 369–388, December 2010
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Legal rules admit of exceptions; indeed, it has been a legal maxim that one
can infer the existence of a rule from exceptions that are made to it. Hart claims that
the exceptions do not admit of exhaustive statement (a form of legal particularism)
but that nonetheless rules can bind. This paper develops a logical framework which
accommodates this position, shows that it is available to a positivist, elucidates the
role of rules within it, and concludes by discussing the relevance to issues of judicial
discretion.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9760.2009.00358.x
