Chapter 6, The Foundations of a Legal System Summary and Analysis

When secondary rules of recognition are accepted, societies have authoritative methods of determining what law is. Unstated rules of recognition are often used, but they are subordinate to legal rules of recognition. The courts use the former to elaborate the latter. Statements of law can be made as internal statements and external statements, representing statements like "It is the law that . . ." and "In England they recognize law as . . ." respectively. Secondary rules track the internal aspect.

However, statements concerning internal aspects presuppose the truth of external statements. When judges state that a law is valid they make internal statements, but the statements are meant to indicate facts about the external point of view. Thus, the internal statement of the judge can be incorrect. Some rules of recognition are supreme criterion...