Postscript Summary and Analysis

The Concept of Law was published in 1961; Hart long wanted to add a postscript responding to reactions to his work, but the postscript was unfinished when he died. The editors of the book published the most finished parts of the postscript but the drafts were not meant to be final.

In the postscript, Hart notes that he wants to focus in detail on the criticisms of his view advanced by Ronald Dworkin and in a second section addresses a number of other critics; the second section was too undeveloped at the time of Hart's death for the editors to include in the book; thus the postscript wholly focuses on Dworkin's views. The reader's purpose in studying the guide may not rely on the details of the Dworkin-Hart dispute; discussions of these debates have been reviewed in the secondary literature. These sources...