PT111.S2.P4.Q24

PrepTest 111 - Section 2 - Passage 4 - Question 24

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P1

Ronald Dworkin argues that judges are in danger of uncritically embracing an erroneous theory known as legal positivism because they think the only alternative is a theory that they (and Dworkin) see as clearly unacceptable—natural law. ███

Dworkin's perspective · Judges shouldn't embrace legal positivism
Dworkin thinks they might embrace legal positivism because they think it's the only alternative to natural law.
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Natural law · Says judges should interpret law by consulting own morals
Dworkin rejects this.
P2

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Legal positivism · Meaning of law is based on social conventions
Just like how meanings of words are based on social conventions. According to legal positivism, disputes about meaning of law should be resolved by figuring out what's actually the consensus about the meaning.
P3

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Dworkin's perspective · Actual behavior by judges and lawyers isn't consistent with positivism
We need a theory that is based on what judges and lawyers actually do.
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Dworkin's theory · Internal logic of law
Meaning of law should conform to the internal logic of law and the principles that law is based on, regardless of conventions. Principles might involve appeal to morals, but this isn't like natural law, because internal logic still matters.
P4

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Elaborate on Dworkin's theory · Positivist are wrong in focusing only on what people think law means
The internal logic of law constrains how we might interpret law.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Show answer
24.

According to the passage, which ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ █ ████ ██ █████████ ██████ ██ █████ ███████████████

Question Type
Stated

This is a Stated question about the goal of Dworkin’s theory. His goal is stated here: he wants to validate “this practice”— that is, the actual practice of judges and lawyers. He argues that legal positivism is incompatible with this practice, while natural law theory is an unacceptable form of judicial activism. Dworkin’s theory gives judges an alternative.

a

to evaluate previous █████ ███████████████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████████

This is not stated in the passage. Legal positivism says that the meaning of the law is based on social conventions and consensus. Dworkin disagrees with this, but he never evaluates any legal interpretations that were influenced by legal positivism.

b

to dispute the ██████ ████ ██████ █████████ █████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ██████████████

Too strong. The goal of Dworkin’s theory is to validate the actual practice of judges and lawyers. He never claims that social consensus doesn’t play any role in legal interpretation. He just argues that the meaning of the law should conform to the internal logic of the law.

c

to provide a ███████████ ████████ ███████ ███ ███ ██ █████ █████████ ██ █████ ██████████████

Anti-supported. Dworkin admits that judges might need to use their moral intuitions in some cases. He just rejects natural law theory’s view, which is that interpretation should be based only on a judge’s moral convictions. He offers his own theory as an alternative that seeks to validate the actual practice of judges and lawyers.

d

to argue that █████ █████████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████

Dworkin’s theory seeks to validate the actual practice of judges and lawyers. He thinks that legal interpretation should conform to the internal logic of law and the “general principles” that the law is based on, not the principles of the authors of the law. In fact, P4 says that Dworkin’s theory allows us to improve upon the original authors’ interpretations.

e

to validate theoretically ███ ██████ ████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████

This is stated here. The goal is to validate theoretically— or according to a theory— the actual practice of judges and lawyers. Dworkin argues that legal positivism is incompatible with this practice, while natural law theory is an unacceptable form of judicial activism. His theory gives judges an alternative.

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