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excludes the possibility of any internal relation between laws
constituting a necessary element in a legal system. By internal
relation between laws we mean relation between laws one or
more of which refer to or presuppose the existence of the others.
Thereby Austin excludes a fortiori any specific internal structure
(i.e. pattern of internal relations) which a legal system
must necessarily have.This brief summary demonstrates how Austin's theory of
legal system is virtually a by-product of his definition of' a law'.
Both the theory and the definition revolve around and pre-
suppose the applicability of one concept--the concept of
sovereignty. For this reason we shall begin our detailed exami-
nation of Austin's theory by considering his concept of
sovereignty, and then proceed to discuss his criterion of exis-
tence (I.2), his criterion of identity (I.3), and his theory of the
structure of a law, which prepares the ground for his theory of
the structure of a legal system (I.4).
1.1: SOVEREIGNTY
'Sovereignty' belonged to the philosophical and political
terminology long before Austin. It had, however, been recently
transformed by Bentham: 'When a number of persons', he
wrote, '(whom we may style subjects) are supposed to be in the
habit of paying obedience to a person or an assemblage of per-
sons, of a known and certain description (whom we may call
governor and governors) such persons altogether (subjects and
governors) are said to be in a state of political society.' 1 One
need only compare this passage with the following from The
Province to realize how great is Austin's debt to his master: 'If a
determinate human superior, not in a habit of obedience to a
like superior, receive habitual obedience from the bulk of a
given society, that determinate superior is sovereign in that
society, and the society (including the superior) is a society
political and independent.' 2 Two major innovations were introduced by Bentham and
adopted by Austin:
1. Sovereignty is neither derived from nor explained by
____________________
1 Fragment, p. 38.
2 Province, p. 194.

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Publication Information: Book Title: The Concept of a Legal System: An Introduction to the Theory of Legal System. Contributors: Joseph Raz - author. Publisher: Clarendon Press. Place of Publication: Oxford. Publication Year: 1980. Page Number: 6.
    
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