PERBUATAN yang TELAH DIPUTUS dengan KEPUTUSAN yang TETAP
Makalah ini disusun untuk memenuhi
Tugas Mata Kuliah Hukum Pidana II
OLEH:
NUR ‘AINI (2008531005)
SHOLIKHUL AMIN (2008531010)
DOSEN PEMBIMBING:
ARIF WIJAYA. S. H. M. Hum
FAKULTAS AGAMA ISLAM
UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH SURABAYA
2010
KATA PENGANTAR
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alamin, segala puji bagi Allah Tuhan semesta alam. Atas berkat rahmat dan petunjukNyalah kami dapat menyelesaikan makalah ini dengan baik dan lancar.
Makalah ini kami susun guna memenuhi tugas mata kuliah mata pelajaran “Hukum Pidana II” semester IV jurusan Syari’ah fakultas Agama Islam.
Atas terselesainya makalah ini kami mengucapkan terima kasih kepada Bapak Arif Wijaya S. H. M. Hum Selaku dosen pembimbing dan seluruh rekan-rekan yang bekerja sama dalam penyusunan makalah ini.
Kami menyadari, makalah ini masih jauh dari sempurna, oleh sebab itu saran dan kritik yang membangun selalu kami harapkan demi perbaikan selanjutnya.
Akhirnya, semoga makalah ini bermanfaat bagi kita semua. Amiin.
Surabaya, M e i 2010
PENYUSUN
BAB I
PENDAHULUAN
Berbeda dengan dasar-dasar yang meniadakan pidana yang ditujukan pada pengadilan (hakim), mengenai hapusnya hak Negara untuk menuntut pidana ini yang ditujukan pada pejabat penuntut.
Dalam KUHP memuat 4 (empat) hal yang menyebabkan Negara kehilangan hak untuk menuntut pidana terhadap si pembuat tindak pidana, salah satunya adalah yang akan kita bahas pada saat ini, yaitu:
“ Perbuatan yang Telah Diputus dengan Putusan yang Telah Menjadi Tetap”
BAB II
PEMBAHASAN
Perbuatan yang telah diputus dengan putusan yang telah menjadi tetap (in krachtvan gewisjde) disimpulkan dari sebagian rumusan ayat (1) pasal 76 yang bunyinya ialah ” Kecuali dalam hal putusan hakim yang masih mungkin diulangi, orang tidak boleh dituntut dua kali karena perbuatan yang oleh hakim Indonesia terhadap dirinya telah diadili dengan putusan yang menjadi tetap”.
Ketentuan pasal 76 ayat (1) diletakkan suatu dasar yang disebut dengan asas ” ne bis in idem” yang melarang negara untuk menuntut kedua kalinya terhadap si pembuat yang perbuatannya telah diputus oleh pengadilan yang mana putusannya adalah suatu keputusan hukum yang pasti tau hukum yang tetap.
Adanya larangan negara untuk menuntut terhadap si pembuat karena perbuatannya yang telah diputus oleh pengadilan dengan putusan yang telah mempunyai kekuatan hukum tetap, bertitik tolak pada alasan untuk kepastian hukum dalam suatu kasus perkara pidana, baik bagi si pembuat perkara pidana maupun negara dan masyarakat atau pihak-pihak lain yang ada hubungannya dengan kasus tersebut. Ketentuan mengenai berlakunya hukum yang berdiri di atas asas ”ne bis in idem” tidak hanya terdapat pada hukum pidana saja tetapi juga pada hukum-hukum yang lainnya, seperti hukum perdata.
Putusan yang bagaimanakah yang berlaku asas ne bis in idem ini? Perlulah kita ketahui bahwa, jika dilihat dari segi objeknya putusan, maka putusan hakim dalam perkara pidana dapat dibedakan menjadi 2 macam, yaitu:
1. Putusan terhadap dan mengenai prosedur acara.
2. Putusan terhadap dan mengenai pokok perkaranya.
A. Putusan mengenai prosedur acaranya
Mengenai yang pertama, ada bermacam-macam putusan dengan dasar dan alasannya masing-masing, antara lain:
1) Putusan yang berisi pernyataan tentang dakwaan jaksa penuntut umum tidak dapat diterima berhubung jaksa penuntut umum tidak berwenang menuntut karena ternyata (dengan alasan). Misalnya:
a. Tidak ada pengaduan dari yang berhak mengadu dalam hal perkara tindak pidana aduan
b. Perbuatan yang didakwakan dalam perkara itu telah neb is in idem
c. Perbuatan yang didakwakan dalam perkara itu telah kadaluwarsa
2) Putusan yang berisi pernyataan tentang ”tidak berwenang mengadil perkaranya”
3) Putusan yang berisi pernyataan tentang “dakwaan penuntut umum batal demi hukum”
4) Putusan yang berisi pernyataan tentang penangguhan penuntutan
5) Putusan yang berisi tentang pernyataan bahwa dakwaan penuntut umum dibatalkan atau pembatalan
B. Putusan mengenai pokok perkaranya
Sedangkan putusan yang kedua, ialah berupa putusan Hakim terhadap pokok perkaranya, atau terhadap tindak pidana yang didakwakan Jaksa Penuntut Umum. Mengenai putusan yang dimaksud ini ada 4 macam, yaitu:
1) Putusan pembebasan, diberikan apabila menurut pertimbangan Majlis Hakim, kesalahan terdakwa atas perbuatan yang didakwakan kepadanya tidak terbukti secara sah dan meyakinkan.
2) Putusan pelepasan dari tuntutan hukum diberikan dalam hal:
a. apabila Majlis Hakim berpendapat bahwa perbuatan yang didakwakan kepada terdakwa terbukti, tetapi perbuatan itu tidak merupakan suatu tindakan pidana.
b. Apabila Majlis Hakm berpendapat bahwa tindak pidana yang didakwakan telah terbukti secara sah dan meyakinkan, tetapi adanya alasan-alasan yang meniadakan pidana.
3) Putusan penghukuman, apabila setelah persidangan berlangsung, menurut pertimbangan Majlis bahwa tindak pidana yang didakwakan terbukti secara sah dan meyakinkan yang didasarkan pada dua atau lebih alat bukti yang sah.
4) Putusan yang berisi tindakan.
Dari dua jenis putusan Hakim tersebut yang di atas, yang berlaku asas ne bis in idem, hanyalah terhadap putusan-putusan mengenai pokok perkaranya (yang ke-2), yakni putusan yang berisi: pemidanaan, pelepasan dari tuntutan hukum, pembebasan dan tindakan. Sedangkan jenis-jenis putusan yang mengenai prosedur acaranya (yang ke-1) tidak berlaku asas ne bis in idem.
Tetap di antara sekian putusan yang tidak mengenai pokok perkaranya (macam ke-1), ada putusan yang berisi pernyataan tentang dakwaan tidak dapat diterima, yang perkaranya tidak dapat diajukan lagi ke pengadilan, yaitu putusan yang didasarkan pada alasan bahwa perkara yang dibuatnya surat dakwaan ituadalah tidak atau bukan masuk ruang lingkup perkara pidana, tetapi masuk ruang lingkup perdata, atau perkara yang dibuatnya surat dakwaan itu bukan berupa melawan hukum, tetapi berupa perbuatan hukum.
Perbuatan dalam hal asas ne bis in idem adalah sama dan berhubunganerat dengan perbuatan dalam hal perbarengan peraturan. Hubungan erat itu terletak dalam halperbarengan peraturan. Hubungan erat itu terletak dalam hal, ialah apabila terjadi perbarengan peraturan, artinya di dalamnya terdapat satu perbuatan dimana melanggar beberapa aturan pidana, dan karenanya tidak dapat dituntut yang kedua kalinya dengan dakwaan pelanggaran atas aturan pdana yang lain dalam peristiwa yang perbuatannya satu tersebut.
VAN HAMEL sebagaimana dikutip oleh UTRECHT menyebut tentang adanya tiga pendapat tentang arti perbuatan dalam Pasal 76 ayat (1), yaitu:
a. Perbuatan dalam arti peristiwa jahat telah terjadi (misdadig voorval)
b. Perbuatan dalam arti perbuatan yang menjadi pokok dakwaan (de handeling zoals die is te laste gelegd)
c. Perbuatan dalam arti perbuatan materiil (materiele handeling)
Perlu di ingat bahwa ketentuan bahwa asas ne bis in idem berlaku juga terhadap putusan asing berupa (ke-1) pembebasan atau pelepasan dari tuntutan hukum; dan (ke-2) berupa pemidanaan yang telah dijalani seluruhnya atau telah diberi pengampunan atau kewenangan untuk menjalankannyatelah hapus karena daluwarsa. Karena walaupun tidak disebutkan tiga macam putusan tersebut berikut pemberian pengampunan (yang terahir berarti telah dipidana), toh asas ne bis in idem itu memang hanya berlaku pada tiga macam putusan hakim itu saja.
BAB III
KESIMPULAN
Majlis Hakim tidak diperbolehkan menuntut dakwaan pada pembuat perkara jika perkara tersebut telah diputuskan dengan suatu hokum yang tetap.
Asas neb is in idem tidaka hanya ada pada ruang lingkup pidana saja, tetapi juga terdapat pada ruang lingkup hokum yang lain , misalnya hukum perdata
DAFTAR PUSTAKA
Chazawi, Adami. Pelajaran Hukum Pidana; bagian 2. Rajawali Press. Jakarta: 2009
Blog ini terbuka untuk siapa saja, dan semoga blog ini berguna untuk anda. Mohon dukungannya :)
Selasa, 25 Mei 2010
Senin, 10 Mei 2010
detective conan


Detektif Conan dikenal di Jepang sebagai 名探偵コナン (Meitantei Konan ?) adalah sebuah manga dan anime detektif fiktif karangan Aoyama Gosho. Nama serial Detektif Conan versi bahasa Inggris adalah Case Closed.[1] Nama-nama tokoh di Case Closed diganti untuk menghindari kesalahpahaman pembaca Case Closed. Detektif Conan diterbitkan dalam majalah Mingguan Shōnen Sunday. Selain dalam format manga dan anime, Detektif Conan juga telah dibuat dalam bentuk film layar lebar dan drama TV serta dalam bentuk Spesial TV.
Detektif Conan menceritakan tentang Shinichi Kudo, seorang detektif SMA, yang tubuhnya mengecil akibat racun yang dibuat dan diberikan oleh sebuah organisasi misterius tanpa diketahui organisasi tersebut. Supaya identitas asli Shinichi tidak diketahui organisasi misterius tersebut, Shinichi menyamar sebagai Conan Edogawa, dan tinggal di kantor detektif swastanya Kogoro Mouri yang juga rumah teman sejak kecilnya, Ran Mouri. Conan Edogawa telah banyak membantu Kogoro memecahkan kasus, sehingga Kogoro menjadi detektif terkenal (yang dikenal sebagai Kogoro Tidur).
Shinichi Kudo, seorang detektif SMA berusia 17 tahun yang biasanya membantu polisi memecahkan kasus, diserang oelh 2 anggota organisasi misterius ketika mengawasi sebuah pemerasan. Dia kemudian diberi minum racun misterius yang baru selesai dikembangkan yang ditujukan untuk membunuhnya, namun karena sebuah efek samping yang jarang terjadi yang tidak diketahui anggota organisasi tersebut, racun tersebut mengakibatkan tubuhnya mengecil seperti bocah berusia tujuh tahun setelah mereka meninggalkannya.[2]
Setelah dia sadar tubuhnya menjadi kecil, dia pun memberitahukan bahwa tubuhnya telah menyusut kepada Profesor Agasa, tetangganya yang merupakan seorang peneliti. Mulanya Profesor Agasa tidak percaya, namun karena Shinichi yang tubuhnya mengecil itu menunjukkan kemampuan analisisnya yang luar biasa, maka Profesor Agasa pun percaya bahwa dia adalah Shinichi Kudo yang tubuhnya mengecil.
Karena teman sejak kecil Shinichi, Ran Mouri, memiliki firasat buruk terhadap Shinichi, maka Ran pun mencari- cari Shinichi. Tempat yang pertama dicari Ran adalah rumah Shinichi. Kebetulan Profesor Agasa dan Shinichi yang tubuhnya menyusut ada disana, ketika Ran Mouri menanyakan nama dari bocah kecil yang sebenarnya Shinichi yang tubuhnya menyusut, dia menyebutkan bahwa namanya adalah "Conan Edogawa". Nama "Conan" berasal dari nama pengarang buku detektif terkenal Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, sedangkan nama "Edogawa" berasal dari nama Edogawa Ranpo. Edogawa Ranpo adalah pengarang novel detektif yang paling terkenal di Jepang. Conan lalu mulai mencari tahu seluk beluk organisasi misterius tersebut sambil tinggal di rumahnya Ran Mouri yang berada di daerah Beika. Nama Beika merupakan rujukan dari nama jalan tempat tinggal Sherlock Holmes (Baker Street). Baker di Jepang diucapkan sebagai Beika.
Karena mengecilnya tubuh Shinichi, analisis Conan sama sekali tidak dipercaya polisi karena dianggap sebagai anak kecil. Jadi, Conan terpaksa membuat ayah Ran, Kogoro Mouri, yang merupakan seorang detektif payah, untuk memecahkan berbagai kasus kejahatan, dengan harapan dapat melacak jejak organisasi tersebut. Kemudian kisah selanjutnya menjadi semakin rumit dan melibatkan berbagai individu. Conan didaftarkan oleh Profesor Agasa ke dalam SD Teitan sebagai murid kelas 1 SD pindahan dari daerah lain. Sekolah TeiTan merupakan permainan kata dalam bahasa Jepang (TanTei= Detektif). Ran Mouri pernah beberapa kali mencurigai bahwa Conan adalah Shinichi, namun karena kecerdikkan Conan, maka Ran pun percaya bahwa Conan bukanlah Shinichi.
Anggota Organisasi Hitam yang telah diketahui adalah Gin, Vodka, Vermouth, Pisco, Tequilla, Calvados, Chianti, Kir (nama asli : Hidemi Hondou, dikenal sebagai Rena Mizunashi, kakak Eisuke Hondou), Kusuda Rikumichi, Masami Hirota (nama asli : Akemi Miyano, kakaknya Ai Haibara), Sherry (nama asli : Shiho Miyano,Ai Haibara), Bourbon, Rye (nama asli : Shuichi Akai, mantan anggota organisasi ini), Hell Angel (nama asli : Elena Miyano, ibu Ai Haibara), serta Big Boss yang selalu ditampilkan secara kabur (blur) dan selalu disebut oleh Gin sebagai Anokata (orang itu).
Pembeberan isi cerita berakhir di sini.
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Tokoh
Artikel utama untuk bagian ini adalah: Daftar karakter dalam seri Detektif Conan
Serial Detektif Conan menampilkan tokoh-tokoh ciptaan Gosho Aoyama. Alur utama cerita ini berlatar belakang tempat di Jepang, dengan penggunaan nama-nama tempat sungguhan seperti Tokyo dan Osaka, tetapi juga menggunakan nama tempat fiktif seperti Kota Beika. Versi Amerika Serikat (FUNimation) memiliki sejumlah perbedaan nama tokoh dengan versi asli [3].
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Media
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Manga
Artikel utama untuk bagian ini adalah: Daftar bab dalam seri Detektif Conan
Bab dari manga Detektif Conan ditulis dan diilustrasikan oleh Aoyama Gosho. Di Jepang, mereka telah diterbitkan di Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday sejak tahun 1994. Sejak premier Detektif Conan, lebih dari tujuh ratus bab telah dirilis di Jepang. Masing-masing bab dikumpulkan oleh Shogakukan dalam serangkaian volume Tankōbon. Jilid pertama ini dirilis pada 18 Juni 1994; sampai dengan 18 Agustus 2009, enam puluh lima volume telah dirilis.[4][5] Viz Media (penerbit Detektif Conan dalam versi Amerika Serikat) merilis volume pertama pada 7 September 2004, dengan tiga puluh dua jilid dirilis per 27 November 2009.[6][7] Elex Media Komputindo merupakan penerbit Detektif Conan dalam versi Bahasa Indonesia.
Ada 3 edisi Detektif Conan yang diterbitkan di Indonesia (oleh Elex Media Komputindo), yaitu:
Detektif Conan edisi reguler berupa volume berbentuk tankobon yang isinya telah diterjemahkan dari bahasa Jepang ke bahasa Indonesia.
Detektif Conan Edisi Spesial yaitu edisi yang setiap bab (file)-nya berisi 1 kasus dan kasus- kasus tersebut adalah kasus yang pendek.
Detektif Conan Seri Animasi TV
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Anime
Artikel utama untuk bagian ini adalah: Daftar episode dalam seri Detektif Conan
Episode dari serial anime Detektif Conan diarahkan oleh Kenji Kodama dan Yasuichiro Yamamoto dan diproduksi oleh Tokyo Movie Shinsha dan Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation.[8] Lima puluh episode dari serial Detektif Conan Bahasa Inggris disiarkan di Cartoon Network sebagai bagian dari blok program Adult Swim pada 24 Mei 2004 sampai Januari 2005 dan telah dihentikan karena rendahnya popularitas.
Pada Juli 2009, 17 bagian dan 143 total volume telah dirilis oleh Shogakukan.[9] Lima kotak koleksi DVD dari adaptasi Inggris dari anime telah dirilis oleh Funimation Entertaiment dan berisi lima musim pertama dari anime.[10][11][12][13][14]
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Spesial TV
Spesial TV dari seri Detektif Conan hanya ada satu untuk saat ini yaitu Lupin III vs Detective Conan (ルパン三世 vs 名探偵コナン "Lupin Sansei vs Meitantei Conan"?). Episode ini menceritakan tentang Conan yang bertemu dengan Lupin III yang berusaha mencuri mahkota ratu kerajaan Vespania.
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Film
Artikel utama untuk bagian ini adalah: Daftar film layar lebar dalam seri Detektif Conan
Empat belas film layar lebar telah dirilis yang berasal dari seri Detektif Conan. Film- film tersebut telah dirilis pada bulan April sejak tahun 1997. Setiap film layar lebar memiliki jalur plot tesendiri, dan bukan merupakan adaptasi dari cerita manganya. Diantara 14 film ini, hanya 6 yang pernah ditayangkan di Indonesia melalui Indosiar, yaitu film ke-1, ke-2, ke-6, ke-9, ke-10,dan ke-11.[15]No. Judul dalam bahasa Jepang Judul dalam bahasa Inggris Tanggal pertama kali dirilis Pendapatan/
box office (¥) Durasi
1 名探偵コナン 時計じかけの摩天楼
(Meitantei Konan Tokei Jikake no Matenrō ?) Detective Conan: The Time-Bombed Skyscraper 19 April 1997 ? 95 Menit
2 名探偵コナン 14番目の標的
(Meitantei Konan Jyuuyon banme no Tagetto ?) Detective Conan: The Fourteenth Target 18 April 1998 1,05 miliar [16] 99 Menit
3 名探偵コナン 世紀末の魔術師
(Meitantei Konan Seikimatsu no Majutsushi ?) Detective Conan: The Last Wizard of the Century 17 April 1999 1,45 miliar [17]. 100 Menit
4 名探偵コナン 瞳の中の暗殺者
(Meitantei Konan Hitomi no Naka no Ansatsusha ?) Detective Conan: Captured in Her Eyes 22 April 2000 2,5 miliar[18] 99 Menit
5 名探偵コナン 天国へのカウントダウン
(Meitantei Konan Tengoku e no Kauntodaun ?) Detective Conan: Countdown to Heaven 21 April 2001 2,9 miliar[19] 99 Menit
6 名探偵コナン ベイカー街の亡霊
(Meitantei Konan Beikā Sutorīto no Bōrei ?) Detective Conan: The Phantom of Baker Street 20 April 2002 3,4 miliar[20] 107 Menit
7 名探偵コナン 迷宮の十字路
(Meitantei Konan Meikyū no Kurosurōdo ?) Detective Conan: Crossroad in the Ancient Capital 19 April 2003 3,2 miliar[21] 108 Menit
8 名探偵コナン 銀翼の奇術師
(Meitantei Konan Gin-yoku no Majishan ?) Detective Conan: Magician of the Silver Sky 17 April 2004 2,8 miliar[22] 110 Menit
9 名探偵コナン 水平線上の陰謀
(Meitantei Konan Suiheisenjō no Sutoratejī ?) Detective Conan: Strategy Above the Depths 19 April 2005 2,15 miliar[23] 109 Menit
10 名探偵コナン 探偵たちの鎮魂歌
(Meitantei Konan Tantei-tachi no Requiem ?) Detective Conan: The Private Eyes' Requiem 15 April 2006 ? 111 Menit
11 名探偵コナン 紺碧の棺
(Meitantei Konan Konpeki no Jorī Rojā ?) Detective Conan: Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure 27 April 2007 2,53 miliar[24]. 95 Menit
12 名探偵コナン 戦慄の楽譜
(Meitantei Konan Senritsu no Furu Sukoa ?) Detective Conan: Full Score of Fear 19 April 2008 2,42 miliar 116 Menit
13 名探偵コナン 漆黒の追跡者
(Meitantei Konan Shikkoku no Chaser ?) Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser 18 April 2009 3,4 miliar 111 menit
14 名探偵コナン 天空の難破船
(Meitantei Konan Tenkuu no Nanpasen ?) Detective Conan: The Lost Ship in the Sky[25] 17 April 2010 ? ?
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Drama Televisi
Dua drama televisi tunggal yang telah dibuat dari seri ini, satu pada tahun 2006 dan satu pada tahun 2007.
Dalam drama pertama, Detective Conan: Shinichi Kudo's Written Challenge (名探偵コナン- 工藤新一への挑戦状 "Meitantei Conan: Kudo Shinichi he no Chosenjo"?), yang perdana di Jepang pada Nippon Television pada 2 Oktober 2006.[26] Itu menjabat sebagai prekuel dari cerita saat ini, dibintangi oleh Shun Oguri sebagai Shinichi Kudo, Tomoka Kurokawa sebagai Ran Mouri, dan Takanori Jinnai sebagai Kogoro Mouri. [27]
Drama TV kedua perdana pada tanggal 17 Desember 2007[28] yang berjudul Shinichi Kudo Returns! Showdown with the Black Organization (工藤新一の復活!~黒の組織との対決 "Kudo Shinichi no Fukkatsu! Kuro no Soshiki to no Taiketsu"?), dengan menambahkan karakter seperti Yu Kashii (sebagai Shiho Miyano), Kuranosuke Sasaku (sebagai Gin), Okada Taro (sebagai Vodka), Ryosei Tayama (sebagai Agasa), Fujisaki Nao (sebagai Conan) dan Shibata Kyoka (sebagai Haibara).
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CD
Gambar sampul album dari Detective Conan Original Soundtrack
Tiga puluh satu soundtrack CD, diproduksi oleh Polydor Records dari Universal Music Group, telah dirilis untuk seri anime dan film Detektif Conan.[29]
Detective Conan: Original Soundtrack 1 dirilis pada tanggal 21 Februari 1996 dan berisi 20 lagu.[30]
Detective Conan: Original Soundtrack 2 dirilis pada tanggal 2 Mei 1996 dengan 70 lagu.[31]
Detective Conan: Original Soundtrack 3 dirilis pada tanggal 25 November 1996 dengan 27 lagu.[32]
Detective Conan: Original Soundtrack 4 ~Let's go! Detective Boys~ dirilis pada tanggal 25 April 2001 dengan 28 soundtracks.[33]
Tiga CD dirilis dengan berisi koleksi lagu tema "terbaik" di dalam seri anime.
Detective Conan: Original Soundtrack- Super Best dirilis pada tanggal 27 November 1997 berisi 30.[34]
Detective Conan: Original Soundtrack- Super Best 2 dirilis pada tanggal 17 Desember 2003 berisi 22 lagu.[35]
Detective Conan TV Original Soundtrack: Selection Best dirilis pada tanggal 5 Desember 2007.[36]
Lima CD dirilis dengan berisi lagu tema yang digunakan untuk anime. Dua album foto dirilis bersamaan dengan 4 album singel. Setiap film dari serial ini juga memiliki CDnya masing- masing.
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Permainan Trading Card
Case Closed Trading Card Game adalah sebuah permainan yang dapat dikoleksi didasarkan dari seri Detektif Conan (Case Closed). Diproduksi oleh Score Entertainment, permainan ini dipublikasi pada Juni 2005 di Amerika.[37] Permainan ini dimainkan diantara 2 sampai 6 pemain.[37] Para pemain bersaing untuk menyelesaikan 3 kasus menggunakan petunjuk yang sesuai, sementara secara bersamaan berusaha untuk menghentikan lawan mereka dari melakukannya. Setiap pemain masing-masing mengambil 5 langkah dalam 1 giliran.
shinchan

Crayon Shin-chan (クレヨンしんちゃん Kureyon Shinchan) adalah sebuah seri manga dan anime karya Yoshito Usui. Tokoh utamanya adalah seorang bocah berusia lima tahun, ia murid taman kanak-kanak yang sering membuat ulah, dan membuat repot semua orang di sekitarnya.
Crayon Shin-chan pertama muncul pada tahun 1990 secara mingguan di majalah Weekly Manga Action, yang diterbitkan oleh Futabasha. Crayon Shin-chan mulai ditayangkan oleh TV Asahi pada 13 April 1992. Di Indonesia, komik Shin-chan diterbitkan oleh Indorestu Pacific (sebelumnya pernah pula diterbitkan Rajawali Grafiti dengan judul Crayon). Anime Crayon Shin-chan di Indonesia ditayangkan oleh stasiun televisi RCTI setiap hari Minggu pagi sesudah serial Doraemon.
Humor dalam seri ini berasal dari tingkah laku Shin-chan yang janggal. Misalnya ia sering meledek ibunya bila disuruh merapikan mainannya. Seperti ayahnya, Shin-chan juga suka melihat wanita cantik dan sering merayu mereka.
Tokoh-tokoh
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Keluarga Nohara (野原家)
Shinnosuke Nohara (野原しんのすけ Nohara Shinnosuke) adalah tokoh utama serial ini, seorang murid TK berusia 5 tahun yang gemar menirukan tingkah laku orang dewasa, menyukai berbagai serial anak-anak di televisi, serta sering merayu wanita dewasa yang cantik.
Misae Nohara (野原みさえ Nohara Misae) adalah ibu Shin-chan. Ia adalah seorang ibu rumah tangga yang sering dibuat jengkel karena kenakalan Shin-chan. Hukuman yang biasanya ia berikan adalah pukulan, jitakan atau cubitan. Namun ia juga mencintai anaknya. Misae sangat suka dengan diskon, brosur, dan perhiasan.
Hiroshi Nohara (野原ひろし Nohara Hiroshi) adalah ayah Shin-chan. Ia adalah seorang pegawai dan kepala keluarga. Hiroshi takut dan tunduk kepada Misae.
Himawari Nohara (野原ひまわり Nohara Himawari) adalah adik Shin-chan. Mirip dengan kakaknya, Himawari sangat suka melihat lelaki tampan. Anak ini juga sangat senang sengan perhiasan, dan semua benda-benda yang berkilau (walaupun itu kecoa!). Kata 'Himawari', dalam bahasa Jepang berarti bunga matahari.
Shiro (シロ) adalah anjing Shin-chan. Ia memiliki bulu berwarna putih dan dapat menggulung diri seperti bola salju. Anjing ini sangat cerdas. Anjing ini dipungut oleh keluarga Nohara karena dibuang oleh pemiliknya.
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Murid-murid TK Aksi / Futaba Yōchien (アクシヨン幼稚園児 / ふたば幼稚園)
Tooru Kazama (風間 トオル Kazama Tōru) adalah teman sekelas Shin-chan yang suka sok tahu dan pamer kekayaan.
Nene Sakurada (桜田 ネネ Sakurada Nene) adalah anak perempuan tetangga Shin-chan. Setiap kali Shin-chan berkunjung ke rumahnya ia selalu membuat jengkel ibu Nene. Nene paling suka dengan permainan 'pura-pura'/ 'keluarga bahagia'. Di komik versi Indonesia, nama Nene diubah menjadi Nana
Masao Sato (マサオ Masao) adalah anak yang penakut dan paling suka melakukan pekerjaan bersih-bersih. Masao tidak pernah bisa menolak jika Nene mengajaknya bermain 'pura-pura'/ 'keluarga bahagia'.
Bo (ボ Bō) adalah anak yang sangat pendiam. Dia hampir tidak pernah bicara. Dia terlihat selalu ingusan, Tetapi dia tidak pernah merasa terganggu dengan keberadaan ingusnya itu. Dia juga suka mengkoleksi bebatuan berbentuk aneh.
Ai (愛 Ai) adalah seorang anak perempuan cantik yang berasal dari keluarga kaya di Tokyo. Tujuannya bersekolah di TK Aksi adalah untuk melihat kehidupan rakyat biasa. Semua anak laki-laki di TK Aksi jatuh cinta padanya, kecuali Shin-chan yang lebih menyukai wanita dewasa. Ai sangat tertarik dengan Shin-chan. Kadang, Nene sangat kesal dengannya. Dalam komik versi Indonesia, nama Ai diganti menjadi Masako.
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Guru-guru TK Aksi / Futaba Yōchien (アクシヨン幼稚園職員と関係者 / ふたば幼稚園)
Midori Yoshinaga (吉永 緑 Yoshinaga Midori) adalah guru Shin-chan. Ia selalu bersaing dengan Ume Matsuzaka. Setelah menikah dengan Junichi Ishizaka, nama belakangnya berubah menjadi Midori Ishizaka (石坂 緑 Ishizaka Midori).
Ume Matsuzaka (松坂 梅 Matsuzaka Ume) adalah teman sekaligus musuh bebuyutan Yoshinaga. Ia adalah guru dari kelas tetangga Shin-chan, kelas Mawar. Setelah 24 tahun melajang, akhirnya ia berpacaran dengan seorang dokter ahli tulang. Bu guru Matsuzaka suka dengan barang-barang bermerek. Ia juga membual bahwa ia bisa berbahasa Inggris.
Bunta Takakura (高倉 文太 Takakura Bunta) adalah kepala sekolah TK Aksi. Ia sering dipanggil "Kumichō" (組長 = boss Yakuza) oleh Shin-chan karena wajahnya yang menyeramkan. Tetapi, di balik wajahnya yang menyeramkan, ia adalah seorang pria yang baik hati. Semua orang di TK Aksi (kecuali Shin-chan), memanggilnya enchou-sensei ( 園長先生 ) yang berarti 'kepala sekolah'.
Atsukurushi (Panas Sekali) (アツクルシ) adalah seorang guru pengganti Ibu guru Yoshinaga ketika sedang cuti hamil. Dia sangat suka dengan hal-hal yang panas. Dia suka berteriak, "フアイヤ!" (Fire) ketika melakukan aktivitasnya. Pak Atsukurushi punya phobia dengan kelinci karena pernah digigit. Tetapi, berkat bantuan Shin-chan, ia berhasil mengatasi ketakutannya itu. Nene diam-diam kagum dengannya.
Akeo (あけお) adalah salah seorang guru pengganti Ume Matsuzaka ketika patah tulang [1] di TK Aksi. Bu guru Akeo adalah orang yang kurang percaya diri. Dia hanya bisa mengutarakan isi hatinya / pikirannnya apabila kacamatanya dilepas. Dia termasuk orang yang cukup aneh. Dia mempunyai sebuah boneka jerami yang diberi nama George. Ia juga suka makan kuah sisa mi instan dicampur dengan nasi. Shin-chan dan Pak Kepala Sekolah berpikir bahwa bu guru Akeo lebih cantik apabila tidak berkacamata.
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Lain-lain
Pahlawan bertopeng / Action-Kamen (アクション仮面) adalah pahlawan fiksi di serial TV kesukaan Shin-chan. Karakter Pahlawan Bertopeng merupakan parodi dari berbagai tokoh yang ada di film tokusatsu Jepang.
Yonro Tetangga Keluarga Nohara saat pindah rumah ke apartemen. dia gagal ujian 3 kali dengan alasan gugup. akhirnya berhasil juga karena dukungan nohara. dia diterima di Tokyo Cascaiban Daigaku University, menjadi mahasiswa malam. Yonro berarti putra ke-4
Nanako Mahasiswi cantik yang diidolakan Shinchan. Dirinya mengawali persahabatan dengan keluarga Nohara saat ia menolong Shinchan yang matanya kemasukan debu. Sekalipun Nanako adalah seorang wanita yang cantik, ditokohkan ia kadang-kadang polos dan berani. Ia mempunyai seorang sahabat wanita dari klub sumo wanita bernama Shinobu.
Shinobu Wanita kuat ini merupakan sahabat Nanako, ia ditampilkan sebagai wanita yang mengerikan, besar, dan unik. Walaupun dalam karakternya hampir 6 volume komik ia dianggap tidak mungkin mendapatkan kekasih, akhirnya ia berhasil mempunyai kekasih bernama Omata. Omata adalah salah satu tetangga Keluarga Nohara saat pindah ke apartemen. Ia sebenarnya merupakan seorang putra mahkota yang ingin mendapatkan jodoh di Jepang, sekalipun norma dan adatnya berbeda.
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Pengisi Suara Anime Shin-chan
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versi Jepang (seiyū)
Akiko Yajima - Shin-chan / Shinnosuke Nohara
Miki Narahashi - Misae Nohara
Keiji Fujiwara - Hiroshi Nohara
Satomi Koorogi - Himawari Nohara
Mari Mashiba - Tooru Kazama & Shiro
Teiyu Ichiryusai - Masao Sato
Tamao Hayashi - Nene Sakurada
Chie Sato - Bō
Yumi Takada - Midori Yoshinaga / Midori Ishizaka
Michie Tomizawa - Ume Matsuzaka
Rokuro Naya - Enchou
Tessho Genda - Action Kamen
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versi Indonesia
Ony Syahrial - Shin-chan / Shinnosuke Nohara
Herra Nur Indah - Misae Nohara
Muhammad Sadam Ajubarkah - Hiroshi Nohara
Widiyanto Utomo - Masao Sato
Krisnohadi - Kakek Nohara
Lia Lizara - Midori Yoshinaga
Maymuznah - Ume Matsuzaka
doraemon

Doraemon (ドラえもん) adalah judul sebuah manga populer yang dikarang Fujiko F. Fujio (藤子・F・不二雄) sejak tahun 1969 dan berkisah tentang kehidupan seorang anak pemalas kelas 5 SD yang bernama Nobi Nobita (野比のび太) yang didatangi oleh sebuah robot kucing bernama Doraemon yang datang dari abad ke-22. Dia dikirim untuk menolong Nobita agar keturunan Nobita dapat menikmati kesuksesannya daripada harus menderita dari utang finansial — yang akan terjadi di masa depan — yang disebabkan karena kebodohan Nobita.
Nobita, setelah gagal dalam ulangan sekolahnya atau setelah diganggu oleh Giant dan Suneo, akan selalu mendatangi Doraemon untuk meminta bantuannya. Doraemon kemudian biasanya akan membantu Nobita dengan menggunakan peralatan-peralatan canggih dari kantong ajaibnya; peralatan yang sering digunakan misalnya "baling-baling bambu" dan "Pintu ke Mana Saja". Sering kali, Nobita berbuat terlalu jauh dalam menggunakan peralatannya dan malah terjerumus ke dalam masalah yang lebih besar.
Setting
Perhatian: Bagian di bawah ini mungkin akan membeberkan isi cerita yang penting atau akhir kisahnya.
Doraemon dikirim kembali ke masa kini oleh cicit Nobita, Sewashi, untuk memperbaiki kehidupan Nobita agar keturunannya merasakan kehidupan yang lebih baik. Dalam kehidupan aslinya (tanpa dibantu Doraemon), Nobita gagal dalam pelajaran sekolahnya, gagal dalam karir, dan meninggalkan keluarganya dengan masalah finansial.
Cerita terfokus tentang kehidupan sehari-hari Nobita, tokoh utama cerita ini. Doraemon memiliki sebuah kantung 4 dimensi yang ia isi dengan benda-benda dari masa depan. Seringkali Nobita datang merengek-rengek karena masalah di sekolah atau di lingkungannya, setelah memohon atau memaksa, Doraemon akan mengeluarkan sebuah alat yang membantu Nobita menyelesaikan masalah, membalas dendam, atau hanya sekedar pamer ke teman-temannya.
Bagaimanapun, Nobita biasanya bertindak terlalu jauh, mengacuhkan saran atau perintah Doraemon, dan mengakibatkannya terjerumus ke masalah yang lebih dalam. Terkadang, teman Nobita (biasanya Suneo atau Giant) mencuri alat tersebut dan berakhir dalam kekacauan karena salah menggunakannya.
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Sinopsis
Kehidupan awal Doraemon tidak begitu baik. Ia adalah sebuah robot gagal yang dilelang kepada sebuah keluarga miskin yang terlilit utang, yang tak lain adalah keluarga keturunan Nobi Nobita. Doraemon pernah menjalani masa-masa berat: Ia hanya menjadi penjaga bayi setelah gagal melewati ujian di akademi robot, kedua telinganya hancur setelah digigit robot tikus, catnya luntur akibat ulahnya sendiri, dan masih banyak kisah sedih yang ia lalui di tahun pertama kelahirannya. Sampai suatu ketika, keluarganya mengirimkan ia kembali ke masa lalu, kira-kira 250 tahun yang lalu, zaman dimana Nobita Nobi, leluhur keluarga ini, masih hidup di Tokyo.
Misi Doraemon adalah untuk menolong Nobi Nobita (buyut dari Sewashi yang memiliki Doraemon). Nobita adalah seorang anak yang selalu mengalami nasib sial dan tak punya kemampuan apa-apa. Ia bodoh dalam pelajaran sekolah dan tidak bisa berolahraga, Nobita hanya berbakat dalam tembak-menembak dan tidur; kemampuan yang hampir tak berguna di zaman Jepang modern. Inilah alasan mengapa ia gagal menjalani kehidupannya. Dan Doraemon dikirim dari masa depan untuk menjadikannya seorang pria yang sukses. Sangat ironis, sebuah robot gagal datang membantu seorang anak yang gagal. Tetapi pada kenyataannya, persahabatan kedua anak ini membuat mereka menjadi seseorang yang lebih baik.
Doraemon tiba di tahun 1969, pada hari Tahun Baru Jepang. Ia keluar dari laci meja milik Nobita, dan sejak saat itu ia tinggal bersama Nobita, misinya adalah untuk mencegah Nobita menjadi orang gagal. Setiap kali Nobita tertimpa masalah, Doraemon akan segera membantu dengan alat-alat ajaibnya.
Kelihatannya misi Doraemon berhasil, karena ketika mereka menjelajah ke masa depan, Nobita melihat dirinya menikah dengan Shizuka, bukan dengan Jaiko. Dia juga melihat keturunannya hidup dalam kondisi yang lebih baik daripada ketika Sewashi mengirim Doraemon dulu; bahkan keturunan Nobi mampu membeli robot yang "tidak gagal", Dorami.
Diceritakan dalam manga dan anime, Doraemon dan Nobita saling bekerja sama untuk memperbaiki kehidupan mereka masing-masing. Mereka saling bekerja sama dan tolong-menolong. Banyak juga cerita yang menampilkan kisah keberanian dan kegigihan mereka untuk mempertahankan persahabatan yang sudah mereka jalin.
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Tokoh cerita
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Tokoh-tokoh utama
Doraemon, (ドラえもん).
Robot kucing berwarna biru dari abad ke-22 yang dikirim ke abad ke-20 untuk menolong Nobita. Lahir pada 3 September 2112[1]. Tinggi badannya 129,3 cm dan berbobot 129,3 kg. Makanan kesukaannya adalah dorayaki. Doraemon sangat menyayangi dan setia kepada Nobita. Seringkali ia menolong Nobita walaupun ia sendiri dalam kesusahan.
Sebenarnya, Doraemon adalah sebuah robot kucing yang diciptakan oleh Nobita sendiri, dan setelah sekian lama doraemon berpindah - pindah sejak pertama kali diciptakan, doraemon diperbaharui dan tubuhnya dicat baru sehingga berwarna kuning yang dirancang untuk keperluan rumah tangga keluarga kaya. Sayangnya, sebuah kesalahan terjadi ketika ia menjalani proses produksi. Tak seperti robot kucing lainnya, ia gagal melewati tes sehingga ia dilelang ke keluarga kelas bawah, yang tak lain adalah keluarga keturunan Nobi Nobita. Doraemon tetap menjadi sebuah robot kucing berwarna kuning hingga suatu hari, ketika ia sedang mengurus bayi keluarga tersebut,sebuah robot tikus menggigit telinganya sampai hancur, sehingga terpaksa diamputasi. Doraemon menangis dan terus menangis, ia mencoba untuk mengembalikan telinganya kembali dengan cairan penumbuh, tetapi ia mengambil cairan yang salah dan akhirnya melunturkan cat ditubuhnya yang semula kuning menjadi warna dasarnya, biru. Ia pun berubah menjadi seperti sekarang ini: sebuah robot kucing berwarna biru, tanpa telinga. Sampai sekarang pun Doraemon menjadi benci dan takut terhadap tikus.
Sebenarnya Doraemon sendiri adalah robot canggih yang diciptakan sendiri oleh Nobita. Doraemon diciptakan saat Nobita sudah berumur sekitar separuh baya. Dan sebenarnya doraemon sudah berada dikeluarga nobita sejak awalnya ia diciptakan. Meskipun gagal dalam proses tes, Doraemon tetap menjadi sebuah robot canggih yang memiliki alat-alat ajaib yang mampu memecahkan semua masalah. Ia juga pengertian dan memiliki rasa kasih sayang; ketika Nobita menangis dan merengek kepadanya, Doraemon dengan senang hati mendengarkan semua keluhan dan membantunya. Doraemon juga mampu memahami perasaan manusia, baik itu sedih, takut, marah, gembira, simpati, dan lainnya. Ia mempelajarinya, dan bertindak sesuai apa yang ia pelajari; ia dapat berteriak kegirangan, meloncat ketakutan, dan mengangis haru. Namun, ia juga bertindak sangat emosional, apalagi ia memiliki sifat tempramental yang cukup buruk ketika sedang bertengkar dengan Nobita. Ia juga memiliki "senjata rahasia" yang bisa digunakan dalam keadaan terdesak, yaitu kepalanya yang lebih keras daripada batu sekalipun. Singkatnya, ia menjadi sebuah robot yang memiliki perasaan seperti manusia.
Tubuh Doraemon sangat sensitif, ia tak dapat beraktivitas dengan normal jika ia kehilangan suku cadangnya; walaupun hanya sebuah mur. Ia memiliki seorang adik bernama Dorami yang siap menggantikan tugasnya menjaga Nobita ketika ia menjalani servis rutin di masa depan.
Nobi Nobita, (野比のび太)
Anak kelas 5 SD yang pemalas dan sering diganggu oleh Giant dan teman-temannya. Tidak pandai dalam olahraga dan juga dalam pelajaran sekolah. Walaupun begitu, ia pandai dalam membuat teka-teki dan menembak. Sifatnya yang terlalu baik dan suka menolong terkadang malah menyeretnya ke dalam masalah. Namun separah apapun, pada akhirnya Nobita akan selalu bergembira. Selain membuat teka-teki dan menembak, Nobita juga ahli dalam hal "tidur." Ia mampu tertidur lebih cepat daripada orang lain . Hobinya adalah bermain karet — hobi yang tak lazim untuk anak laki-laki di Jepang — dan mengumpulkan tutup botol. Cita-cita Nobita selalu berganti-ganti, ia pernah ingin menjadi ninja, guru, pilot, dan lain-lain. Namun di masa depan, ia hanya menjadi seorang pegawai kantoran.
Dirinya dari masa depan seringkali datang kembali dengan mesin waktu untuk menyuruh Nobita belajar. Ini diakibatkan kemalasan Nobita sewaktu disekolah dasar yang akhirnya terbawa ketingkat selanjutnya dan membuat dirinya yang lebih tua menyesal dan mencoba merubahnya seperti itu.
Fujimoto, pengarang komik ini, pernah mengatakan, "Nobita sebenarnya bukan tidak bisa berbuat apa-apa, ia hanya malas jika harus bersungguh-sungguh ketika melakukan sesuatu, Karenanya, setiap hari ia selalu bersantai-santai. Tapi kalau memang diperlukan, ia bisa melakukannya dengan bersungguh-sungguh."
Berbeda dengan ibunya, Nobita adalah seorang pecinta binatang. Ia pernah memelihara — dengan sembunyi-sembunyi — berbagai macam hewan mulai dari kucing, anjing, Fuuko si anak angin, sampai seekor gajah Afrika yang terpisah dari induknya.
Dalam komiknya, Nobita diceritakan pernah tinggal di suatu pulau kecil terpencil selama 10 tahun akibat keteledorannya sendiri. Namun tak ceritakan apakah peristiwa tersebut memberikan efek terhadap perilaku atau sifatnya.
Shizuka Minamoto (源静香)
Anak perempuan yang disukai Nobita dan di masa depan akan menikah dengannya walau di masa sekarang ia lebih dekat dengan Dekisugi karenya lebih kedekatan dibidang intelektual. Ia selalu membela Nobita jika Nobita dikerjai teman-temannya. Ia juga serius tetapi baik hati, alasannya menikah dengan Nobita pun karena ia tak tega melihat Nobita yang malang dan selalu sial. Shizuka suka membuat kue dan seringkali mengundang teman-temanya untuk makan bersama. Kesukannya adalah berendam di air panas dan makan ubi manis bakar (ubi madu). Ia bercita-cita menjadi seorang pramugari. Shizuka juga hobi memainkan biola (meskipun suara yang dihasilkannya tak jauh berbeda dengan nyanyian Giant), namun, ia dimasukkan ke tempat kursus piano - yang ia tidak terlalu sukai - oleh ibunya.
Takeshi Goda (nama panggilan: Giant, Jaian dalam romaji; 剛田武、ジャイアン)
Seorang pengganggu yang namanya didasarkan pada kata bahasa Inggris giant (raksasa), cepat marah dan sangat senang menyanyi walaupun suaranya kurang memadai. Ia juga sering mengadakan konser atau resital di lapangan dan mengundang semua temannya untuk datang dan mendengarkan, walaupun sebenarnya mereka tidak suka. Cita-citanya adalah menjadi penyanyi dan bisa tampil di televisi. Namun dibalik semua itu, Giant adalah seorang anak kuat yang dapat diandalkan ketika teman-temannya berada dalam kesulitan. Giant juga mempunyai hobi lain yakni memasak, meskipun hasilnya juga tidak memuaskan. Selain memasak dan menyanyi, Giant mempunyai hobi yang ia rahasiakan dari teman-temannya: bermain rumah-rumahan dengan boneka-boneka miliknya.
Suneo Honekawa (骨川スネ夫)
Anak berwajah rubah dari keluarga kaya yang sering memamerkan kekayaannya di depan Nobita dan membuat Nobita merengek ke Doraemon agar bisa menyaingi Suneo. Walaupun begitu, Suneo sebenarnya adalah seorang anak yang sangat manja, mudah menyerah, dan penakut. Ia masih sering mengompol dan kadang harus memakai popok sewaktu tidur. Ia juga seorang narcisist dan sering berbohong untuk menjaga harga dirinya. Teman terdekatnya adalah Giant meskipun sebenarnya ia memendam dendam terhadap Giant yang suka mengambil dan merusak mainannya. Hobinya adalah memandangi cermin, mengumpulkan perangko dan barang antik lainnya, membuat pramodel, membuat foto panorama, dan bermain remote control. Suneo mempunyai wawasan yang luas di bidang sains dan adalah pendesigner yang bertalenta. Cita-citanya adalah menjadi seorang designer pakaian berkelas.
Suneo memiliki seorang adik laki-laki bernama Sunetsugu. Ia tinggal bersama pamannya di New York, Amerika Serikat dan jarang pulang ke Jepang. Meskipun begitu, Suneo dan Sunetsugu sering berkomunikasi lewat surat. Sunetsugu sangat bangga dengan Suneo karena dalam suratnya, Suneo selalu berbohong untuk membanggakan dirinya; misalnya dengan mengatakan bahwa ia adalah anak yang paling pintar di sekolah, paling kuat di lingkungan, dan disukai banyak perempuan. Suneo juga memiliki sepupu bernama Sunekichi yang sering membuatkan remote control untuknya.
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Keluarga Nobita
Ayah Nobita
Nama lengkapnya Nobisuke Nobi, seorang pegawai kantoran yang baik dan penyabar. Ketika muda, ia pernah bercita-cita menjadi seorang pelukis bahkan ia sempat berguru kepada seorang pelukis yang kini terkenal. Ia pandai berolahraga terutama bermain golf tetapi ia sangat bodoh dalam pelajaran sekolah. Ia seorang perokok berat dan kesulitan menghilangkan kebiasaan merokoknya. Sejak lama ia memimpikan untuk memiliki SIM mobil namun selalu gagal mendapatkannya.
Nobisuke selalu mengharapkan Nobita agar tidak menjadi seperti dirinya; seorang pekerja kantoran dan gagal dalam melakukan apapun. Ia sering membelikan Nobi setumpuk ensiklopedia yang kemudian hanya dijadikan pajangan saja. Nobisuke juga suka petualangan, ia juga sering menasihati agar Nobita keluar rumah menikmati hangatnya sinar matahari daripada hanya tidur-tiduran di rumah. Meskipun begitu, ia sangat memanjakan Nobita, ia jarang sekali memarahi Nobi.
Ibu Nobita
Nama lengkapnya Tamako Kataoka, seorang ibu rumah tangga yang benci binatang. Ia selalu cerewet dan memarahi Nobita jika anak itu melakukan kesalahan yang tidak dikehendakinya — mendapat nilai nol, contohnya. Di masa muda, ia adalah seorang anak yang pintar tapi tak pandai berolahraga. Hobinya adalah merangkai bunga.
Nenek (dari pihak ayah)
Nama aslinya tidak diketahui. Nenek adalah seorang yang penyabar dan baik hati. Ia selalu menasihati Nobita dengan halus dan lebut, dan melindungi Nobita ketika diomeli oleh ibunya. Nenek mengenal Nobita masa kini dan mengetahui adanya mesin waktu milik Doraemon. Nasihat nenek yang selalu diingat Nobita adalah Daruma; Daruma walaupun sudah jatuh berkali-kali, namun ia akan bangun dengan sendirinya. Nenek meninggal ketika Nobita masih kecil.
Kakek (dari pihak ayah)
Kakek adalah seorang yang galak dan tegas, ia mendidik Nobisuke dengan keras. Namun dibalik semua itu, ia sangat mencintai Nobisuke. Sama seperti nenek, ia juga mengetahui keberadaan Nobita masa kini dan Doraemon. Kakek meninggal sebelum Nobita dilahirkan.
Nobisuke
Nobisuke adalah anak Nobita dan Shizuka di masa depan. Berbeda dengan Nobita yang pendiam dan tenang, Nobisuke adalah anak yang hiperaktif, suka olahraga, dan sering mengganggu teman-temannya — meskipun kedua-duanya sama-sama bodoh. Nobisuke juga sering mengunjungi "calon ayahnya", Nobita, di masa kini.
Sewashi
Sewashi adalah cicit Nobita yang hidup di abad ke-22, ia lah yang mengirim Doraemon kepada Nobita.
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Tokoh-tokoh lainnya
Dorami (ドラミ)
Adik perempuan Doraemon yang berwarna kuning, pandai beres-beres, bersih-bersih, mencuci dan memiliki tenaga sepuluh ribu daya kuda. Orangnya apik dan benci terhadap ketidakrapihan, dan lebih rajin dibandingkan Doraemon. Ia juga selalu serius dan tidak bisa diajak bercanda; inilah yang membuat Nobita kurang menyukainya. Meskipun begitu, Dorami sebenarnya adalah robot yang baik dan sering menolong Nobita dan teman teman ketika mereka dalam kesulitan.
Hidetoshi Dekisugi (出木杉英才)
Anak yang tampan dan pintar dalam pelajaran maupun olahraga, sering menjadi nomor 1 di kelas. Dekisugi selalu dicemburui Nobita karena sering membantu Shizuka dalam pelajaran Walaupun begitu Dekisugi tidak pernah dendam bahkan sekali waktu membantu Nobita dalam banyak hal. Selain itu, Dekisugi juga pandai menggambar dan memasak.
Gariben (ガリベンくん?)
Gariben adalah pemilik rengking dua disekolah Nobita. Ia iri pada Dekisugi yang adalah nomer satu dikelas dan satu kali menjaihilinya. Ia menelpon Dekisugi setiap hari pada jam dua malam sehingga Dekisugi menjadi khawatir dan nilai-nilainya turun. Doraemon dan Nobita menangkapnya dan ia memohon agar tidak dilaporkan kepada guru. Dekisugi memaafkannya dan ia berjanji untuk tidak melakukannya lagi dan berusaha dengan kekuatan sendiri.
Jaiko
Adik perempuan Giant. Hobinya memasak dan mengarang komik. Jaiko menggunakan nama Christine Goda (クリスチーネ 剛田, Kurisuchīne Gōda?) untuk komik karangannya. Giant sangat menyayanginya dan rela berkorban apa saja demi Jaiko. Ia akan menjadi istri Nobita andai saja Doraemon tidak datang ke masa kini.
Sunetsugu
Adik laki-laki Suneo yang tinggal bersama pamannya yang kaya raya di Amerika Serikat. Sunetsugu sangat bangga akan kakaknya, Suneo, yang menurutnya sangat pintar dan kuat, meskipun kenyataannya tidak.
Sunekichi
Sepupu laki-laki Suneo, berambut keriting dan — seperti keluarga Suneo lainnya — bermuka seperti rubah. Ia adalah anak orang kaya yang sangat jenius dan memiliki rasa ingin tahu yang tinggi. Ia pernah membuat sebuah remote control tiruan kapal Yamato sepanjang 1.75 m hanya untuk dihancurkan dengan mainannya yang lain. Dalam beberapa cerita, ia mengadu mainan remote controlnya dengan peralatan ajaib milik Doraemon. Selain itu ia juga senang menyusun dorama dan seringkali mengajarkan Suneo bagaimana cara membuat dorama yang kelihatan sungguh.
Pak guru
Guru kelas 4 SD yang sering menghukum Nobita dengan cara menyuruhnya berdiri di koridor sekolah. Ia sering memaharahi Nobita dan Jaian, tapi menganakemaskan Suneo. Pak guru sering melakukan kunjungan orang tua murid — yang sering menjadi malapetaka bagi Nobita.
Sunetaro
Anak laki-laki Suneo. Ia adalah seorang yang sangat manja — sama seperti ayahnya, namun ia lemah dan sering dijahili Nobisuke, anak Nobita.
Hideyo
Anak laki-laki Dekisugi. Ia sangat pintar seperti ayahnya. Meskipun masih SD ia sudah mampu membuat sebuah robot yang diberi nama Roboket; gabungan antara robot dengan roket.
Kaminari
Kakek pemilik rumah disebelah lapangan dimana Giant dan kawan suka bermain baseball. Giant atau kawan biasanya memecahkan kaca jendela rumah atau bonsai miliknya dengan "tidak sengaja" melempar bola atau batu bisa juga salah satu alat milik Doraemon.
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Akhir cerita
Buge :Saya sampai sedih mendengar cerita ini Sejak tahun 1980-an, banyak sekali bermunculan cerita dan spekulasi tentang akhir kisah Doraemon.
Kisah pertama —dan paling optimistik— dipublikasikan oleh Nobuo Satu beberapa tahun yang lalu. Diceritakan suatu hari, Nobita pulang ke rumah dan merengek-rengek mengadu ke Doraemon. Tapi tak lama, ia menyadari ada sesuatu yang salah dengan Doraemon; robot kesayangannya itu hanya diam dan tak menjawab keluhannya. Ia pun segera menelepon Dorami, adik Doraemon, dan meminta petunjuk darinya. Dorami kemudian memberi tahu bahwa baterai milik Doraemon habis. Lebih jauh lagi, Dorami menjelaskan bahwa robot kucing versi lama seperti Doraemon seharusnya memiliki cadangan baterai pendukung memori di bagian telinga, tetapi karena Doraemon telah kehilangan telinganya, ia tidak memiliki tenaga cadangan untuk menyimpan memori dan ingatannya. Satu-satunya cara untuk menghidupkan kembali Doraemon adalah dengan mengganti baterainya, namun itu berarti Doraemon akan kehilangan seluruh ingatan tentang diri dan kawan-kawannya; termasuk tentang Nobita.
Disaat bersamaan, polisi-waktu membuat peraturan baru dan melarang adanya "perjalanan waktu" dan menghalangi Nobita yang berusaha membawa Doraemon untuk diperbaiki di masa depan. Dorami kemudian memberikan pilihan: nekat menerobos polisi-waktu, memperbaiki Doraemon di masa depan dan menghapus ingatannya atau menunggu seseorang dari masa depan datang dan memperbaiki Doraemon; Nobita memilih cara kedua. Nobita —yang sangat kehilangan Doraemon— kemudian berjanji untuk belajar keras demi Doraemon. Usaha Nobita berhasil, tiga tahun kemudian Nobita lulus SMA dengan nilai terbaik dan menjadi seseorang yang sangat populer di sekolahnya. Meskipun demikian, sifat Nobita yang ceria dan optimistik hilang, ia menjadi seorang kutubuku yang selalu menyendiri. Dua puluh sembilan tahun kemudian, diceritakan Dekisugi yang telah menjadi presiden Jepang, mengadakan reuni dengan Suneo dan Jaian. Ketiganya membahas mengenai masalah tentang "hilangnya" Doraemon dan tentang Time Paradox; sebuah teori yang menjelaskan bahwa sejarah dunia dapat berubah dengan diciptakannya mesin waktu. dan dari percakapan itulah terpapar alasan kenapa patroli waktu tak memberikan ijin nobita untuk memperbaiki Doraemon di masa depan, karena nobita itu sendiri yang menciptakan Doraemon. setelah diperbaiki, doraemon menjadi mempunyai telinga dan berwarna kuning, dipeluknya erat-erat Doraemon. Dan mereka hidup bahagia selamanya.[2][3]
Yang kedua, akhir yang lebih pesimistik mengusulkan bahwa Nobita menderita autisme dan semua karakter yang ada (termasuk Doraemon) hanyalah karakter fiksi dalam imajinasinya saja. Ide bahwa Nobita yang sakit dan sekarat membayangkan semua seri di tempat tidurnya untuk membantunya menghilangkan depresi dan rasa sakitnya membuat marah banyak fans. Banyak fans di Jepang protes di luar kantor utama penerbit dari seri setelah mengetahui tentang hal ini. Penerbit akhirnya mengeluarkan pernyataan publik bahwa hal ini tidak benar.
Yang ketiga berisi bahwa Nobita jatuh dan kepalanya terbentur batu. Ia mengalami koma. Untuk mendapatkan uang untuk operasi agar Nobita selamat, Doraemon menjual seluruh peralatannya di kantong ajaibnya, namun, operasi tersebut gagal. Doraemon menjual semua peralatannya kecuali satu alat yang ia gunakan untuk mempersilahkan Nobita kemanapun ia mau, pada akhirnya, Nobita ingin pergi ke surga.
Semua kemungkinan ini didiskusikan dan diputuskan tidak ada akhir untuk kisah Doraemon. [4]
Terdapat tiga akhir yang resmi untuk kisah Doraemon yang dibuat. Doraemon tidak dilanjutkan di dua media karena pembaca semakin besar dan akhir dari kisah ini dipercaya dibutuhkan.
Pada bulan Maret tahun 1971, di majalah Shogaku 4-nensei [5]: Karena fakta bahwa pengunjung dari masa depan menyebabkan masalah, pemerintah pada abad ke-22 melarang adanya perjalanan waktu, berarti Doraemon harus kembali ke waktunya di zamannya dan meninggalkan Nobita.
Pada bulan Maret tahun 1972, isi dari majalah Shogaku 4-nensei: Doraemon, untuk beberapa alasan harus kembali ke masa depan dan berbohong untuk masalah mekanik sehingga Nobita memperbolehkannya pergi. Nobita mempercayainya dan berjanji untuk menunggu sampai Doraemon sembuh. Menyadari bahwa Nobita dapat merelakan kepergiannya, Doraemon memberitahu yang sebenarnya dan Nobita menerimanya. Doraemon kembali ke masa depan.
Akhir dari Doraemon yang ketiga merupakan akhir resmi karena rating TV yang rendah dan Fujiko Fujio sibuk dengan pekerjaan lainnya, tetapi Doraemon tidak meninggalkan pikiran mereka dan mengulang kembali untuk isu bulan depan. Pada tahun 1981, episode ini dibuat menjadi anime (disebut "Doraemon Comes Back"), dan pada tahun 1998, film ini dirilis sebagai film anime.
Pada bulan Maret tahun 1973, isi dari majalah Shogaku 4-nensei, Nobita kembali kerumah setelah kalah bertempur melawan Jaian. Doraemon lalu menjelaskan bahwa ia harus kembali. Nobita mencoba untuk menghalangi hal ini, tetapi setelah mendiskusikannya dengan orang tuanya, ia menerima kepergian Doraemon. Mereka melakukan perjalanan terakhir di taman. Setelah mereka berpisah, Nobita menemui Jaian dan kembali bertempur. Setelah pertarungan yang lama dengan Nobita mencoba untuk menang sehingga Doraemon dapat pergi tanpa khawatir, Jaian membiarkan Nobita menang karena Nobita tidak menyerah. Doraemon menemukan Nobita pingsan dan membawanya pulang. Ia duduk disebelah Nobita yang tidur dan setelah itu, Doraemon kembali ke masa depan. (cerita ini dapat ditemukan di bagian terakhir komik Doraemon nomor 6)
Versi animasi mirip tetapi lebih panjang. Pada saat hari April Mop, Nobita ditipu oleh Suneo dan Jaian yang menipunya tentang kembalinya Doraemon. Ia dengan senang pulang dan menanyakan kepada ibunya dimana Doraemon dan ternyata ia tahu bahwa ia ditipu. Nobita sedih dan membuka kotak dari Doraemon. Isinya adalah botol liquid. Ia mendengarkan suara Doraemon yang menjelaskan bahwa cairan tersebut disebut Uso 800 (Bohong 800) yang digunakan agar semua hal yang tidak benar yang diucapkan orang yang minum cairan tersebut sebagai hal yang benar. Nobita menggunakannya untuk menipu Jaian dan Suneo, seperti ia mengatakan cuaca hari ini sangat bagus, yang menjadi bohong dan mulai turun hujan deras sebelum ia mengatakan hari ini hujannya deras dan hujan tersebut berhenti. Jaian dan Suneo takut setelah beberapa trik dan ketika Nobita mengatakan apa yang akan terjadi. Nobita sangat gembira pada awalnya, tetapi segera hilang karena kangen akan Doraemon. Ia pulang, dan ibunya mengatakan Doraemon sudah pulang, ia tetapi tidak yakin dan yakin Doraemon tidak akan pernah kembali, seperti yang dikatakan Doraemon terhadap Nobita sebelum ia pergi. Cairan tersebut masih berfungsi, ketika ia sampai di kamarnya ia menemukan Doraemon, dan mereka gembira, tetapi karena pengaruh dari cairan, semua kata-katanya berubah menjadi Aku sangat tidak senang bahwa kita dapat kembali lagi.
Bagian ekstra dari animasi ini berasal dari buku komik Doraemon nomor tujuh.
Ketika duo Fujiko Fujio berpisah pada tahun 1987, ide akan akhir Doraemon yang tidak resmi tidak pernah didiskusikan. Sejak Fujiko F. meninggal tahun 1996 sebelum pilihan apapun tercapai, akhir dari Doraemon adalah fiksi para fans, tetapi, pada banyak episode dan film ketika Nobita melakukan perjalanan waktu menampilkan akhirnya ia menikahi Shizuka, memimpin menuju kehidupan yang bahagia dan terpisah dari Doraemon, walaupun Nobita dan temannya masih ingat dengannya. [6]
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Peralatan Doraemon
Peralatan yang sering digunakan oleh Doraemon antara lain:
Kantong Ajaib
Adalah sebuah kantong 4 dimensi yang tertempel di perut Doraemon, kantong ini dapat menyimpan semua alat-alat Doraemon tanpa batas, bahkan semua barang-barang dikamar Nobita. Doraemon juga menyimpan sebuah kantong ajaib cadangan di lemari tempat ia tidur. Di lubang kantung ini terdapat sebuah alat pendeteksi imajinasi sehingga apabila ingin mengambil suatu alat, Doraemon akan membayangkan bentuk dari benda tersebut. Alat pendeteksi imajinasi akan mencari benda tersebut dan akan memberikannya ke tangannya.
Mesin Waktu
Adalah mesin yang dapat digunakan untuk menjelajah ruang dan waktu. Doraemon menggunakannya untuk kembali ke masa depan jika ia ingin menjalani servis rutin.
Pintu ke Mana Saja
Adalah pintu yang digunakan Doraemon untuk menuju ke tempat apa pun di waktu kapan pun. Namun, pintu ke mana saja memiliki batas data zaman tujuan.
Jendela ke Mana Saja
Adalah jendela yang pernah digunakan Nobita untuk menuju ke tempat apa pun di waktu kapan pun. Namun, Jendela ke mana saja memiliki batas data zaman tujuan.
Baling-Baling Bambu
Baling-baling kecil milik doraemon yang digunakan untuk terbang ke tempat yang dituju. Baling-baling bambu terbang dengan menggunakan tenaga baterai yang habis dalam 4 jam, namun dapat terisi ulang secara otomatis apabila diistirahatkan selama beberapa saat.
Konyaku Penerjemah
Konyaku penerjemah adalah makanan sejenis agar-agar tahu yang berguna untuk menerjemahkan bahasa lain. Jika dimakan, maka orang asing yang berbicara dengan kita akan mengerti perkataan kita, begitu pula sebaliknya.
Kue cap Momotaro
Adalah kue yang digunakan untuk menjinakkan binatang. Seganas apapun binatangnya, akan berubah menjadi binatang jinak yang bisa ditunggangi bahkan diperintah. Kue cap Momotaro aman bila dimakan oleh manusia
Senter Pengecil
Jika senter ini digunakan, benda yang disinarinya akan mengecil.
Sarung Tangan Super
Sarung tangan ini dapat meningkatkan kekuatan tangan orang yang memakainya, sehingga dapat mengangkat beban yang sangat berat atau digunakan sebagai senjata bila melawan musuh. Bekerja dengan prinsip gravitasi dan penyerapan berat benda.
Meriam Angin
Salah satu alat Doraemon yang berupa senjata. Dipakai bila menghadapi musuh. Kekuatannya tergantung oleh penggunanya dan memiliki baterai yang dapat habis bila terlalu sering dipakai.
Shock Gun
Sebuah pistol yang dapat mengeluarkan gelombang listrik yang kuat sehingga dapat membuat musuh pingsan.
Mantel Pengibas
Mantel ini berfungsi untuk membelokkan apapun yang mengenai mantel ini
Lingkaran Penembus
Benda yang berbentuk seperti holahop ini berguna untuk menembus dinding ataupun benda yang menghalangi jalan.
Selimut Waktu
Kain yang dapat mengembalikan benda yang dibungkusnya kembali ke asalnya / ke wujud sebelumnya.
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Doraemon di Indonesia
Doraemon adalah salah satu karakter manga yang paling populer di Indonesia. Hampir semua orang kenal dengan tokoh ini - baik orang dewasa maupun kanak-kanak. Seri kartunnya (anime) yang pertama di TVRI Yogyakarta tahun 1974 pada Senin sampai Jumat jam 06:00 dan kedua di TVRI pada tahun 1979 sampai 1991 jam 07:00 pada hari Senin sampai Minggu dan yang ketiga di RCTI setelah belasan tahun (sejak 1991-kini) pada waktu yang sama - pukul 08:00 di hari Minggu, membuktikan kesuksesannya di negeri ini.
Komiknya telah diterbitkan oleh Elex Media Komputindo dalam beberapa seri:
Doraemon
Seri Peralatan Ajaib Doraemon
Doraemon Petualangan
Cerita Spesial Doraemon
Seri Ekspedisi Doraemon
Belajar Menghitung bersama Doraemon
Dorabase
The Doraemons
Doraemon Comic Quiz
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Doraemon (serial anime 1973)
Serial TV pertama di Doraemon yang dibuat oleh Fujiko F. Fujio dan Tokyo Movie Shinsa. Serial yang terdiri dari 26 episode ini merupakan hasil produksi bersama NTV, dan disiarkan di Jepang mulai tanggal 1 April 1973 sampai dengan tanggal 30 September 1973.
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Musik
Lagu pembuka
Doraemon (ドラえもん) oleh Harumi Naito
Lagu penutup
Doraemon Rumba (ドラえもんルンバ) oleh Harumi Naito
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Pemain
Doraemon (1973, pertama): Kosei Tomita
Royo (1973, kedua): Shinzui ngenitling totyo
Nobita (1973): Yoshiko Ota
Jyaian (1973) / Suneo: Kaneta Kimotsuki
Shizuka (1973): Masako Ebisu
Suneo (1973): Shun Yashiro
Ken / Tooru: Chiaki Morita
Ayahnya Nobita (1973): Ichiro Murakoshi
Gachako (1973): Junko Hori
Akachan / Chinchao / Roboka / Shounen: Junko Shimakata
Perman: Katsue Miwa
Ibu di Jyaian: Kazuyo Aoki
Sewashi (1973): Keiko Yamamoto
Dorami: Keiko Yokozawa
Yamada-kun: Kyoko Yamada
Botako (1973): Masako Nozawa
Sensei (1973, kedua): Masashi Amenomori
Papa: Masayuki Kato
Ibu di Nobita (1973): Noriko Ohara
Debuko (1973): Noriko Tsukase
Sensei (1973, pertama): Osamu Kato
Jamako (1973): Rihoko Yoshida
Guru: Ryoichi Tanaka
Dekisugi: Sumiko Shirakawa
Papa: Yuzuru Fujimoto
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Doraemon (serial anime 1979)
Serial TV kedua di Doraemon yang dibuat oleh Fujiko F. Fujio dan Shin'ei Doga. Serial ini adalah ditayangkan TV Asahi di Jepang mulai tanggal 8 April 1979.
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Musik
Lagu pembuka
Lagu di Doraemon (ドラえもんのうた Doraemon no Uta?) (Weekly Program OP #1, Weekday Program OP #1) oleh Kumiko Osugi dan Nobuyo Oyama
Boku Doraemon (ぼくドラえもん) (Weekday Program OP #2) oleh Nobuyo Oyama dan Koorogi '73
Lagu di Doraemon (kedua) (Weekly Program OP #2) oleh Satoko Yamano
Lagu di Doraemon (ketiga) oleh Tokyo Purin
Lagu di Doraemon (ke-4) oleh Misato Watanabe
Lagu di Doraemon (ke-5) oleh AJI
Lagu di Doraemon (ke-6) oleh Twelve Girls Band
Hug Shichao (ハグしちゃお) oleh Rimi Natsukawa
Yume wo Kanaete Doraemon (夢をかなえてドラえもん) oleh mao
Lagu penutup
Doraemon ekaki uta (ドラえもん・えかきうた) (Lagu penutup ekstra) oleh Nobuyo Oyama
Aoi Sora wa Pocket sa (青い空はポケットさ) oleh Kumiko Osugi
Doraemon Ondo (ドラえもん音頭) (Lagu penutup ekstra) oleh Nobuyo Oyama dan Koorogi '73
Dorami chan ekaki uta (ドラミちゃんのえかきうた) (Lagu penutup ekstra) oleh Keiko Yokozawa
Maru Gao no uta (まる顔のうた) oleh Nobuyo Oyama
Santa Claus wa doko no hito (サンタクロースはどこのひと) oleh Nobuyo Oyama
Bokutachi Chikyuu-Jin (ぼくたち地球人) oleh Mitsuko Horie
Aozoratteiina (青空っていいな) oleh Mitsuko Horie
Ashita mo tomodachi (あしたもともだち) oleh Yui Nishiwaki
Boku Doraemon 2112 (ぼくドラえもん2112) oleh Nobuyo Oyama dan Koorogi '73
Mata aeru Hi made (またあえる日まで) oleh YUZU
Tanpopo no Uta (タンポポの詩) oleh THE ALFEE
YUME Biyori (YUME 日和) oleh Hitomi Shimatani
Aa Iina! (あぁ いいな!) oleh W (Double You)
Odore Dore Dora Doraemon Ondo (踊れ・どれ・ドラ ドラえもん音頭) oleh Wasabi Mizuta dan Morinoki Jidou Gasshoudan
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Pengisi suara
Nobita (kedua: 2005-04-15): buge ara
Doraemon (pertama): Nobuyo Oyama
Nobita (pertama): Noriko Ohara
Doraemon (kedua: 2005-04-15): Wasabi Mizuta
Suneo (pertama): Kaneta Kimotsuki
Gian (pertama): Kazuya Tatekabe
Dorami (pertama): Keiko Yokozawa
Ibu di Nobita (kedua: 2005-04-15): Kotono Mitsuishi
Ayahnya Nobita (pertama): Masayuki Kato
Shizuka (pertama): Michiko Nomura
Ibu di Nobita (pertama): Sachiko Chijimatsu
Gian (kedua: 2005-04-15): Subaru Kimura
Suneo (kedua: 2005-04-15): Tomokazu Seki
Ayahnya Nobita (ketiga: 2005-04-15): Yasunori Matsumoto
Ayahnya Nobita (kedua): Yosuke Naka
Shizuka (kedua: 2005-04-15): Yumi Kakazu
Ibu di Shizuka (ketiga: 2005-04-15): Ai Orikasa
Grandma Nobita (kedua): Akiko Takamura
Grandma Nobita (pertama): Atsuko Mine
Company President (pertama): Banjo Ginga
Mini Dora (pertama): Chie Kitagawa
Ayahnya Gian (ketiga): Daisuke Gori
Ayahnya Suneo (kedua): Hideyuki Tanaka
Sune-kichi (pertama): Issei Futamata
Kaminari-san (ketiga: 2005): Katsuhisa Hoki
Guru Nobita (kedua): Kazuhiko Inoue
Ibu di Gian (pertama) / Jaiko (pertama): ahmad akbar megantarai
Toraemon: Keiko Yamamoto
Ibu di Shizuka (pertama): Keiko Yokozawa
Funyakofunyao (ke-4): Kenichi Ogata
Mii-chan (ke-6): Kumiko Watanabe
Ibu di Suneo (kedua): Mari Yokoo
Company President (kedua): Masaharu Sato
Ibu di Shizuka (kedua): Masako Matsubara
Ibu di Suneo (ketiga: 2005): Minami Takayama
Funyakofunyao (ketiga): Minoru Yada
Ibu di Gian (kedua: 2005-04-29): Miyako Takeuchi
Mii-chan (ke-8): Motoko Kumai
Mini Dora (kedua): Rei Sakuma
Guru Nobita (pertama): Ritsuo Sawa
Guru Nobita (ketiga): Ryoichi Tanaka
Sewashi (kedua: 2005): Sachi Matsumoto
Dekisugi (kedua: 2005-05-27): Shihoko Hagino
Kaminari-san (pertama): Shingo Kanemoto
Dekisugi (pertama): Sumiko Shirakawa
Kaminari-san (kedua): Takeshi Watanabe
Sune-kichi (kedua): Takumi Yamazaki
Muku (pertama): Tessho Genda
Jaiko (kedua: 2005): Vanilla Yamazaki
Guru Nobita (ke-4: 2005): Wataru Takagi
Funyakofunyao (pertama): Yasuroo Tanaka
Sewashi (pertama): Yoshiko Ota
Ibu di Suneo (pertama): Yoshino Otori
Ayahnya Gian (kedua, ke-4): Yutaka Shimaka
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Film Doraemon (atau "Doraemon Petualangan" dalam manga)
Catatan : Film-film Doraemon yang beredar di Indonesia bercetak tebal.
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Lama (1980-2000)
Doraemon dan dinosaurus Nobita
Doraemon, petualangan di luar angkasa
Doraemon: Nobita di dunia misteri
Doraemon: petualangan Nobita di dasar laut
Doraemon: Nobita di dunia setan
Doraemon: Nobita dalam perang luar angkasa
Doraemon: Nobita dan pasukan robot
Doraemon: Nobita dan ksatria dinosaurus
Doraemon: Petualangan Nobita ke dunia Barat
Doraemon, dan asal usul negeri Jepang
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[sunting]
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Doraemon: Nobita dan pertempuran Mermaid King
Legal Positivism Leslie Green
First published Fri Jan 3, 2003
Legal positivism is the thesis that the existence and content of law depends on social facts and not on its merits. The English jurist John Austin (1790-1859) formulated it thus: “The existence of law is one thing; its merit and demerit another. Whether it be or be not is one enquiry; whether it be or be not conformable to an assumed standard, is a different enquiry.” (1832, p. 157) The positivist thesis does not say that law's merits are unintelligible, unimportant, or peripheral to the philosophy of law. It says that they do not determine whether laws or legal systems exist. Whether a society has a legal system depends on the presence of certain structures of governance, not on the extent to which it satisfies ideals of justice, democracy, or the rule of law. What laws are in force in that system depends on what social standards its officials recognize as authoritative; for example, legislative enactments, judicial decisions, or social customs. The fact that a policy would be just, wise, efficient, or prudent is never sufficient reason for thinking that it is actually the law, and the fact that it is unjust, unwise, inefficient or imprudent is never sufficient reason for doubting it. According to positivism, law is a matter of what has been posited (ordered, decided, practiced, tolerated, etc.); as we might say in a more modern idiom, positivism is the view that law is a social construction. Austin thought the thesis “simple and glaring.” While it is probably the dominant view among analytically inclined philosophers of law, it is also the subject of competing interpretations together with persistent criticisms and misunderstandings.
• 1. Development and Influence
• 2. The Existence and Sources of Law
• 3. Moral Principles and the Boundaries of Law
• 4. Law and Its Merits
• Bibliography
• Other Internet Resources
• Related Entries
1. Development and Influence
Legal positivism has a long history and a broad influence. It has antecedents in ancient political philosophy and is discussed, and the term itself introduced, in mediaeval legal and political thought (see Finnis 1996). The modern doctrine, however, owes little to these forbears. Its most important roots lie in the conventionalist political philosophies of Hobbes and Hume, and its first full elaboration is due to Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) whose account Austin adopted, modified, and popularized. For much of the next century an amalgam of their views, according to which law is the command of a sovereign backed by force, dominated legal positivism and English philosophical reflection about law. By the mid-twentieth century, however, this account had lost its influence among working legal philosophers. Its emphasis on legislative institutions was replaced by a focus on law-applying institutions such as courts, and its insistence of the role of coercive force gave way to theories emphasizing the systematic and normative character of law. The most important architects of this revised positivism are the Austrian jurist Hans Kelsen (1881-1973) and the two dominating figures in the analytic philosophy of law, H.L.A. Hart (1907-92) and Joseph Raz among whom there are clear lines of influence, but also important contrasts. Legal positivism's importance, however, is not confined to the philosophy of law. It can be seen throughout social theory, particularly in the works of Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, and also (though here unwittingly) among many lawyers, including the American “legal realists” and most contemporary feminist scholars. Although they disagree on many other points, these writers all acknowledge that law is essentially a matter of social fact. Some of them are, it is true, uncomfortable with the label “legal positivism” and therefore hope to escape it. Their discomfort is sometimes the product of confusion. Lawyers often use “positivist” abusively, to condemn a formalistic doctrine according to which law is always clear and, however pointless or wrong, is to be rigorously applied by officials and obeyed by subjects. It is doubtful that anyone ever held this view; but it is in any case false, it has nothing to do with legal positivism, and it is expressly rejected by all leading positivists. Among the philosophically literate another, more intelligible, misunderstanding may interfere. Legal positivism is here sometimes associated with the homonymic but independent doctrines of logical positivism (the meaning of a sentence is its mode of verification) or sociological positivism (social phenomena can be studied only through the methods of natural science). While there are historical connections, and also commonalities of temper, among these ideas, they are essentially different. The view that the existence of law depends on social facts does not rest on a particular semantic thesis, and it is compatible with a range of theories about how one investigates social facts, including non-naturalistic accounts. To say that the existence of law depends on facts and not on its merits is a thesis about the relation among laws, facts, and merits, and not otherwise a thesis about the individual relata. Hence, most traditional “natural law” moral doctrines--including the belief in a universal, objective morality grounded in human nature--do not contradict legal positivism. The only influential positivist moral theories are the views that moral norms are valid only if they have a source in divine commands or in social conventions. Such theists and relativists apply to morality the constraints that legal positivists think hold for law.
2. The Existence and Sources of Law
Every human society has some form of social order, some way of marking and encouraging approved behavior, deterring disapproved behavior, and resolving disputes. What then is distinctive of societies with legal systems and, within those societies, of their law? Before exploring some positivist answers, it bears emphasizing that these are not the only questions worth asking. While an understanding of the nature of law requires an account of what makes law distinctive, it also requires an understanding of what it has in common with other forms of social control. Some Marxists are positivists about the nature of law while insisting that its distinguishing characteristics matter less than its role in replicating and facilitating other forms of domination. (Though other Marxists disagree: see Pashukanis). They think that the specific nature of law casts little light on their primary concerns. But one can hardly know that in advance; it depends on what the nature of law actually is.
According to Bentham and Austin, law is a phenomenon of large societies with a sovereign: a determinate person or group who have supreme and absolute de facto power -- they are obeyed by all or most others but do not themselves similarly obey anyone else. The laws in that society are a subset of the sovereign's commands: general orders that apply to classes of actions and people and that are backed up by threat of force or “sanction.” This imperatival theory is positivist, for it identifies the existence of legal systems with patterns of command and obedience that can be ascertained without considering whether the sovereign has a moral right to rule or whether his commands are meritorious. It has two other distinctive features. The theory is monistic: it represents all laws as having a single form, imposing obligations on their subjects, though not on the sovereign himself. The imperativalist acknowledges that ultimate legislative power may be self-limiting, or limited externally by what public opinion will tolerate, and also that legal systems contain provisions that are not imperatives (for example, permissions, definitions, and so on). But they regard these as part of the non-legal material that is necessary for, and part of, every legal system. (Austin is a bit more liberal on this point). The theory is also reductivist, for it maintains that the normative language used in describing and stating the law -- talk of authority, rights, obligations, and so on -- can all be analyzed without remainder in non-normative terms, ultimately as concatenations of statements about power and obedience.
Imperatival theories are now without influence in legal philosophy (but see Ladenson and Morison). What survives of their outlook is the idea that legal theory must ultimately be rooted in some account of the political system, an insight that came to be shared by all major positivists save Kelsen. Their particular conception of a society under a sovereign commander, however, is friendless (except among Foucauldians, who strangely take this relic as the ideal-type of what they call “juridical” power). It is clear that in complex societies there may be no one who has all the attributes of sovereignty, for ultimate authority may be divided among organs and may itself be limited by law. Moreover, even when “sovereignty” is not being used in its legal sense it is nonetheless a normative concept. A legislator is one who has authority to make laws, and not merely someone with great social power, and it is doubtful that “habits of obedience” is a candidate reduction for explaining authority. Obedience is a normative concept. To distinguish it from coincidental compliance we need something like the idea of subjects being oriented to, or guided by, the commands. Explicating this will carry us far from the power-based notions with which classical positivism hoped to work. The imperativalists' account of obligation is also subject to decisive objections (Hart, 1994, pp. 26-78; and Hacker). Treating all laws as commands conceals important differences in their social functions, in the ways they operate in practical reasoning, and in the sort of justifications to which they are liable. For instance, laws conferring the power to marry command nothing; they do not obligate people to marry, or even to marry according to the prescribed formalities. Nor is reductivism any more plausible here: we speak of legal obligations when there is no probability of sanctions being applied and when there is no provision for sanctions (as in the duty of the highest courts to apply the law). Moreover, we take the existence of legal obligations to be a reason for imposing sanctions, not merely a consequence of it.
Hans Kelsen retains the imperativalists' monism but abandons their reductivism. On his view, law is characterized by a basic form and basic norm. The form of every law is that of a conditional order, directed at the courts, to apply sanctions if a certain behavior (the “delict”) is performed. On this view, law is an indirect system of guidance: it does not tell subjects what to do; it tells officials what to do to its subjects under certain conditions. Thus, what we ordinarily regard as the legal duty not to steal is for Kelsen merely a logical correlate of the primary norm which stipulates a sanction for stealing (1945, p. 61). The objections to imperatival monism apply also to this more sophisticated version: the reduction misses important facts, such as the point of having a prohibition on theft. (The courts are not indifferent between, on the one hand, people not stealing and, on the other, stealing and suffering the sanctions.) But in one respect the conditional sanction theory is in worse shape than is imperativalism, for it has no principled way to fix on the delict as the duty-defining condition of the sanction -- that is but one of a large number of relevant antecedent conditions, including the legal capacity of the offender, the jurisdiction of the judge, the constitutionality of the offense, and so forth. Which among all these is the content of a legal duty?
Kelsen's most important contribution lies in his attack on reductivism and his doctrine of the “basic norm.” He maintains that law is normative and must understood as such. Might does not make right -- not even legal right -- so the philosophy of law must explain the fact that law is taken to impose obligations on its subjects. Moreover, law is a normative system: “Law is not, as it is sometimes said, a rule. It is a set of rules having the kind of unity we understand by a system” (1945, p. 3). For the imperativalists, the unity of a legal system consists in the fact that all its laws are commanded by one sovereign. For Kelsen, it consists in the fact that they are all links in one chain of authority. For example, a by-law is legally valid because it is created by a corporation lawfully exercising the powers conferred on it by the legislature, which confers those powers in a manner provided by the constitution, which was itself created in a way provided by an earlier constitution. But what about the very first constitution, historically speaking? Its authority, says Kelsen, is “presupposed.” The condition for interpreting any legal norm as binding is that the first constitution is validated by the following “basic norm:” “the original constitution is to be obeyed.” Now, the basic norm cannot be a legal norm -- we cannot fully explain the bindingness of law by reference to more law. Nor can it be a social fact, for Kelsen maintains that the reason for the validity of a norm must always be another norm -- no ought from is. It follows, then, that a legal system must consist of norms all the way down. It bottoms in a hypothetical, transcendental norm that is the condition of the intelligibility of any (and all) other norms as binding. To “presuppose” this basic norm is not to endorse it as good or just -- resupposition is a cognitive stance only -- but it is, Kelsen thinks, the necessary precondition for a non-reductivist account of law as a normative system.
There are many difficulties with this, not least of which is the fact that if we are willing to tolerate the basic norm as a solution it is not clear why we thought there was a problem in the first place. One cannot say both that the basic norm is the norm presupposing which validates all inferior norms and also that an inferior norm is part of the legal system only if it is connected by a chain of validity to the basic norm. We need a way into the circle. Moreover, it draws the boundaries of legal systems incorrectly. The Canadian Constitution of 1982 was lawfully created by an Act of the U.K. Parliament, and on that basis Canadian law and English law should be parts of a single legal system, rooted in one basic norm: ‘The (first) U.K. constitution is to be obeyed.’ Yet no English law is binding in Canada, and a purported repeal of the Constitution Act by the U.K. would be without legal effect in Canada.
If law cannot ultimately be grounded in force, or in law, or in a presupposed norm, on what does its authority rest? The most influential solution is now H.L.A. Hart's. His solution resembles Kelsen's in its emphasis on the normative foundations of legal systems, but Hart rejects Kelsen's transcendentalist, Kantian view of authority in favour of an empirical, Weberian one. For Hart, the authority of law is social. The ultimate criterion of validity in a legal system is neither a legal norm nor a presupposed norm, but a social rule that exists only because it is actually practiced. Law ultimately rests on custom: customs about who shall have the authority to decide disputes, what they shall treat as binding reasons for decision, i.e. as sources of law, and how customs may be changed. Of these three “secondary rules,” as Hart calls them, the source-determining rule of recognition is most important, for it specifies the ultimate criteria of validity in the legal system. It exists only because it is practiced by officials, and it is not only the recognition rule (or rules) that best explains their practice, it is rule to which they actually appeal in arguments about what standards they are bound to apply. Hart's account is therefore conventionalist (see Marmor, and Coleman, 2001): ultimate legal rules are social norms, although they are neither the product of express agreement nor even conventions in the Schelling-Lewis sense (see Green 1999). Thus for Hart too the legal system is norms all the way down, but at its root is a social norm that has the kind of normative force that customs have. It is a regularity of behavior towards which officials take “the internal point of view:” they use it as a standard for guiding and evaluating their own and others' behavior, and this use is displayed in their conduct and speech, including the resort to various forms of social pressure to support the rule and the ready application of normative terms such as “duty” and “obligation” when invoking it.
It is an important feature of Hart's account that the rule of recognition is an official custom, and not a standard necessarily shared by the broader community. If the imperativalists' picture of the political system was pyramidal power, Hart's is more like Weber's rational bureaucracy. Law is normally a technical enterprise, characterized by a division of labour. Ordinary subjects' contribution to the existence of law may therefore amount to no more than passive compliance. Thus, Hart's necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a legal system are that “those rules of behavior which are valid according to the system's ultimate criteria of validity must be generally obeyed, and ... its rules of recognition specifying the criteria of legal validity and its rules of change and adjudication must be effectively accepted as common public standards of official behavior by its officials” (1994, p. 116). And this division of labour is not a normatively neutral fact about law; it is politically charged, for it sets up the possibility of law becoming remote from the life of a society, a hazard to which Hart is acutely alert (1994, p. 117; cf. Waldron).
Although Hart introduces the rule of recognition through a speculative anthropology of how it might emerge in response to certain deficiencies in a customary social order, he is not committed to the view that law is a cultural achievement. To the contrary, the idea that legal order is always a good thing, and that societies without it are deficient, is a familiar element of many anti-positivist views, beginning with Henry Maine's criticism of Austin on the ground that his theory would not apply to certain Indian villages. The objection embraces the error it seeks to avoid. It imperialistically assumes that it is always a bad thing to lack law, and then makes a dazzling inference from ought to is: if it is good to have law, then each society must have it, and the concept of law must be adjusted to show that it does. If one thinks that law is a many splendored thing, one will be tempted by a very wide concept of law, for it would seem improper to charge others with missing out. Positivism simply releases the harness. Law is a distinctive form of political order, not a moral achievement, and whether it is necessary or even useful depends entirely on its content and context. Societies without law may be perfectly adapted to their environments, missing nothing.
A positivist account of the existence and content of law, along any of the above lines, offers a theory of the validity of law in one of the two main senses of that term (see Harris, pp. 107-111). Kelsen says that validity is the specific mode of existence of a norm. An invalid marriage is not a special kind of marriage having the property of invalidity; it is not a marriage at all. In this sense a valid law one that is systemically valid in the jurisdiction -- it is part of the legal system. This is the question that positivists answer by reference to social sources. It is distinct from the idea of validity as moral propriety, i.e. a sound justification for respecting the norm. For the positivist, this depends on its merits. One indication that these senses differ is that one may know that a society has a legal system, and know what its laws are, without having any idea whether they are morally justified. For example, one may know that the law of ancient Athens included the punishment of ostracism without knowing whether it was justified, because one does not know enough about its effects, about the social context, and so forth.
No legal positivist argues that the systemic validity of law establishes its moral validity, i.e. that it should be obeyed by subjects or applied by judges. Even Hobbes, to whom this view is sometimes ascribed, required that law actually be able to keep the peace, failing which we owe it nothing. Bentham and Austin, as utilitarians, hold that such questions always turn on the consequences and both acknowledge that disobedience is therefore sometimes fully justified. Kelsen insists that “The science of law does not prescribe that one ought to obey the commands of the creator of the constitution” (1967, p. 204). Hart thinks that there is only a prima facie duty to obey, grounded in and thus limited by fairness -- so there is no obligation to unfair or pointless laws (Hart 1955). Raz goes further still, arguing that there isn't even a prima facie duty to obey the law, not even in a just state (Raz 1979, pp. 233-49). The peculiar accusation that positivists believe the law is always to be obeyed is without foundation. Hart's own view is that an overweening deference to law consorts more easily with theories that imbue it with moral ideals, permitting “an enormous overvaluation of the importance of the bare fact that a rule may be said to be a valid rule of law, as if this, once declared, was conclusive of the final moral question: ‘Ought this law to be obeyed?” (Hart 1958, p. 75).
3. Moral Principles and the Boundaries of Law
The most influential criticisms of legal positivism all flow, in one way or another, from the suspicion that it fails to give morality its due. A theory that insists on the facticity of law seems to contribute little to our understanding that law has important functions in making human life go well, that the rule of law is a prized ideal, and that the language and practice of law is highly moralized. Accordingly, positivism's critics maintain that the most important features of law are not to be found in its source-based character, but in law's capacity to advance the common good, to secure human rights, or to govern with integrity. (It is a curious fact about anti-positivist theories that, while they all insist on the moral nature of law, without exception they take its moral nature to be something good. The idea that law might of its very nature be morally problematic does not seem to have occurred to them.)
It is beyond doubt that moral and political considerations bear on legal philosophy. As Finnis says, the reasons we have for establishing, maintaining or reforming law include moral reasons, and these reasons therefore shape our legal concepts (p. 204). But which concepts? Once one concedes, as Finnis does, that the existence and content of law can be identified without recourse to moral argument, and that “human law is artefact and artifice; and not a conclusion from moral premises,” (p. 205) the Thomistic apparatus he tries to resuscitate is largely irrelevant to the truth of legal positivism. This vitiates also Lon Fuller's criticisms of Hart (Fuller, 1958 and 1969). Apart from some confused claims about adjudication, Fuller has two main points. First, he thinks that it isn't enough for a legal system to rest on customary social rules, since law could not guide behavior without also being at least minimally clear, consistent, public, prospective and so on -- that is, without exhibiting to some degree those virtues collectively called “the rule of law.” It suffices to note that this is perfectly consistent with law being source-based. Even if moral properties were identical with, or supervened upon, these rule-of-law properties, they do so in virtue of their rule-like character, and not their law-like character. Whatever virtues inhere in or follow from clear, consistent, prospective, and open practices can be found not only in law but in all other social practices with those features, including custom and positive morality. And these virtues are minor: there is little to be said in favour of a clear, consistent, prospective, public and impartially administered system of racial segregation, for example. Fuller's second worry is that if law is a matter of fact, then we are without an explanation of the duty to obey. He gloatingly asks how “an amoral datum called law could have the peculiar quality of creating an obligation to obey it” (Fuller, 1958). One possibility he neglects is that it doesn't. The fact that law claims to obligate is, of course, a different matter and is susceptible to other explanations (Green 2001). But even if Fuller is right in his unargued assumption, the “peculiar quality” whose existence he doubts is a familiar feature of many moral practices. Compare promises: whether a society has a practice of promising, and what someone has promised to do, are matters of social fact. Yet promising creates moral obligations of performance or compensation. An “amoral datum” may indeed figure, together with other premises, in a sound argument to moral conclusions.
While Finnis and Fuller's views are thus compatible with the positivist thesis, the same cannot be said of Ronald Dworkin's important works (Dworkin 1978 and 1986). Positivism's most significant critic rejects the theory on every conceivable level. He denies that there can be any general theory of the existence and content of law; he denies that local theories of particular legal systems can identify law without recourse to its merits, and he rejects the whole institutional focus of positivism. A theory of law is for Dworkin a theory of how cases ought to be decided and it begins, not with an account of political organization, but with an abstract ideal regulating the conditions under which governments may use coercive force over their subjects. Force must only be deployed, he claims, in accordance with principles laid down in advance. A society has a legal system only when, and to the extent that, it honors this ideal, and its law is the set of all considerations that the courts of such a society would be morally justified in applying, whether or not those considerations are determined by any source. To identify the law of a given society we must engage in moral and political argument, for the law is whatever requirements are consistent with an interpretation of its legal practices (subject to a threshold condition of fit) that shows them to be best justified in light of the animating ideal. In addition to those philosophical considerations, Dworkin invokes two features of the phenomenology of judging, as he sees it. He finds deep controversy among lawyers and judges about how important cases should be decided, and he finds diversity in the considerations that they hold relevant to deciding them. The controversy suggests to him that law cannot rest on an official consensus, and the diversity suggests that there is no single social rule that validates all relevant reasons, moral and non-moral, for judicial decisions.
Dworkin's rich and complex arguments have attracted various lines of reply from positivists. One response denies the relevance of the phenomenological claims. Controversy is a matter of degree, and a consensus-defeating amount of it is not proved by the existence of adversarial argument in the high courts, or indeed in any courts. As important is the broad range of settled law that gives rise to few doubts and which guides social life outside the courtroom. As for the diversity argument, so far from being a refutation of positivism, this is an entailment of it. Positivism identifies law, not with all valid reasons for decision, but only with the source-based subset of them. It is no part of the positivist claim that the rule of recognition tells us how to decide cases, or even tells us all the relevant reasons for decision. Positivists accept that moral, political or economic considerations are properly operative in some legal decisions, just as linguistic or logical ones are. Modus ponens holds in court as much as outside, but not because it was enacted by the legislature or decided by the judges, and the fact that there is no social rule that validates both modus ponens and also the Municipalities Act is true but irrelevant. The authority of principles of logic (or morality) is not something to be explained by legal philosophy; the authority of acts of Parliament must be; and accounting for the difference is a central task of the philosophy of law.
Other positivists respond differently to Dworkin's phenomenological points, accepting their relevance but modifying the theory to accommodate them. So-called “inclusive positivists” (e.g., Waluchow (to whom the term is due), Coleman, Soper and Lyons) argue that the merit-based considerations may indeed be part of the law, if they are explicitly or implicitly made so by source-based considerations. For example, Canada's constitution explicitly authorizes for breach of Charter rights, “such remedy as the court considers appropriate and just in the circumstances.” In determining which remedies might be legally valid, judges are thus expressly told to take into account their morality. And judges may develop a settled practice of doing this whether or not it is required by any enactment; it may become customary practice in certain types of cases. Reference to moral principles may also be implicit in the web of judge-made law, for instance in the common law principle that no one should profit from his own wrongdoing. Such moral considerations, inclusivists claim, are part of the law because the sources make it so, and thus Dworkin is right that the existence and content of law turns on its merits, and wrong only in his explanation of this fact. Legal validity depends on morality, not because of the interpretative consequences of some ideal about how the government may use force, but because that is one of the things that may be customarily recognized as an ultimate determinant of legal validity. It is the sources that make the merits relevant.
To understand and assess this response, some preliminary clarifications are needed. First, it is not plausible to hold that the merits are relevant to a judicial decision only when the sources make it so. It would be odd to think that justice is a reason for decision only because some source directs an official to decide justly. It is of the nature of justice that it properly bears on certain controversies. In legal decisions, especially important ones, moral and political considerations are present of their own authority; they do not need sources to propel them into action. On the contrary, we expect to see a sourceÑa statute, a decision, or a conventionÑwhen judges are constrained not to appeal directly to the merits. Second, the fact that there is moral language in judicial decisions does not establish the presence of moral tests for law, for sources come in various guises. What sounds like moral reasoning in the courts is sometimes really source-based reasoning. For example, when the Supreme Court of Canada says that a publication is criminally “obscene” only if it is harmful, it is not applying J.S. Mill's harm principle, for what that court means by “harmful” is that it is regarded by the community as degrading or intolerable. Those are source-based matters, not moral ones. This is just one of many appeals to positive morality, i.e. to the moral customs actually practiced by a given society, and no one denies that positive morality may be a source of law. Moreover, it is important to remember that law is dynamic and that even a decision that does apply morality itself becomes a source of law, in the first instance for the parties and possibly for others as well. Over time, by the doctrine of precedent where it exists or through the gradual emergence of an interpretative convention where it does not, this gives a factual edge to normative terms. Thus, if a court decides that money damages are in some instances not a “just remedy” then this fact will join with others in fixing what “justice” means for these purposes. This process may ultimately detach legal concepts from their moral analogs (thus, legal “murder” may require no intention to kill, legal “fault” no moral blameworthiness, an “equitable” remedy may be manifestly unfair, etc.)
Bearing in mind these complications, however, there undeniably remains a great deal of moral reasoning in adjudication. Courts are often called on to decide what would reasonable, fair, just, cruel, etc. by explicit or implicit requirement of statute or common law, or because this is the only proper or intelligible way to decide. Hart sees this as happening pre-eminently in hard cases in which, owing to the indeterminacy of legal rules or conflicts among them, judges are left with the discretion to make new law. “Discretion,” however, may be a potentially misleading term here. First, discretionary judgments are not arbitrary: they are guided by merit-based considerations, and they may also be guided by law even though not fully determined by it -- judges may be empowered to make certain decisions and yet under a legal duty to make them in a particular way, say, in conformity with the spirit of preexisting law or with certain moral principles (Raz 1994, pp. 238-53). Second, Hart's account might wrongly be taken to suggest that there are fundamentally two kinds of cases, easy ones and hard ones, distinguished by the sorts of reasoning appropriate to each. A more perspicuous way of putting it would be to say that there are two kinds of reasons that are operative in every case: source-based reasons and non-source-based reasons. Law application and law creation are continuous activities for, as Kelsen correctly argued, every legal decision is partly determined by law and partly underdetermined: “The higher norm cannot bind in every direction the act by which it is applied. There must always be more or less room for discretion, so that the higher norm in relation to the lower one can only have the character of a frame to be filled by this act” (1967, p. 349). This is a general truth about norms. There are infinitely many ways of complying with a command to “close the door” (quickly or slowly, with one's right hand or left, etc.) Thus, even an “easy case” will contain discretionary elements. Sometimes such residual discretion is of little importance; sometimes it is central; and a shift from marginal to major can happen in a flash with changes in social or technological circumstances. That is one of the reasons for rejecting a strict doctrine of separation of powers -- Austin called it a “childish fiction” -- according to which judges only apply and never make the law, and with it any literal interpretation of Dworkin's ideal that coercion be deployed only according to principles laid down in advance.
It has to be said, however, that Hart himself does not consistently view legal references to morality as marking a zone of discretion. In a passing remark in the first edition of The Concept of Law, he writes, “In some legal systems, as in the United States, the ultimate criteria of legal validity explicitly incorporate principles of justice or substantive moral values …” (1994, p. 204). This thought sits uneasily with other doctrines of importance to his theory. For Hart also says that when judges exercise moral judgment in the penumbra of legal rules to suppose that their results were already part of existing law is “in effect, an invitation to revise our concept of what a legal rule is …” (1958, p. 72). The concept of a legal rule, that is, does not include all correctly reasoned elaborations or determinations of that rule. Later, however, Hart comes to see his remark about the U.S. constitution as foreshadowing inclusive positivism (“soft positivism,” as he calls it). Hart's reasons for this shift are obscure (Green 1996). He remained clear about how we should understand ordinary statutory interpretation, for instance, where the legislature has directed that an applicant should have a “reasonable time” or that a regulator may permit only a “fair price:” these grant a bounded discretion to decide the cases on their merits. Why then does Hart -- and even more insistently, Waluchow and Coleman -- come to regard constitutional adjudication differently? Is there any reason to think that a constitution permitting only a “just remedy” requires a different analysis than a statute permitting only a “fair rate?”
One might hazard the following guess. Some of these philosophers think that constitutional law expresses the ultimate criteria of legal validity: because unjust remedies are constitutionally invalid and void ab initio, legally speaking they never existed (Waluchow). That being so, morality sometimes determines the existence or content of law. If this is the underlying intuition, it is misleading, for the rule of recognition is not to be found in constitutions. The rule of recognition is the ultimate criterion (or set of criteria) of legal validity. If one knows what the constitution of a country is, one knows some of its law; but one may know what the rule of recognition is without knowing any of its laws. You may know that acts of the Bundestag are a source of law in Germany but not be able to name or interpret a single one of them. And constitutional law is itself subject to the ultimate criteria of systemic validity. Whether a statute, decision or convention is part of a country's constitution can only be determined by applying the rule of recognition. The provisions of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. constitution, for example, are not the rule of recognition in the U.S., for there is an intra-systemic answer to the question why that Amendment is valid law. The U.S. constitution, like that of all other countries, is law only because it was created in ways provided by law (through amendment or court decision) or in ways that came to be accepted as creating law (by constitutional convention and custom). Constitutional cases thus raise no philosophical issue not already present in ordinary statutory interpretation, where inclusive positivists seem content with the theory of judicial discretion. It is, of course, open to them to adopt a unified view and treat every explicit or implicit legal reference to morality -- in cases, statutes, constitutions, and customs -- as establishing moral tests for the existence of law. (Although at that point it is unclear how their view would differ from Dworkin's.) So we should consider the wider question: why not regard as law everything referred to by law?
Exclusive positivists offer three main arguments for stopping at social sources. The first and most important is that it captures and systematizes distinctions we regularly make and that we have good reason to continue to make. We assign blame and responsibility differently when we think that a bad decision was mandated by the sources than we do when we think that it flowed from a judge's exercise of moral or political judgement. When considering who should be appointed to the judiciary, we are concerned not only with their acumen as jurists, but also with their morality and politics--and we take different things as evidence of these traits. These are deeply entrenched distinctions, and there is no reason to abandon them.
The second reason for stopping at sources is that this is demonstrably consistent with key features of law's role in practical reasoning. The most important argument to this conclusion is due to Raz (1994, pp. 210-37). For a related argument see Shapiro. For criticism see Perry, Waluchow, Coleman 2001, and Himma.) Although law does not necessarily have legitimate authority, it lays claim to it, and can intelligibly do so only if it is the kind of thing that could have legitimate authority. It may fail, therefore, in certain ways only, for example, by being unjust, pointless, or ineffective. But law cannot fail to be a candidate authority, for it is constituted in that role by our political practices. According to Raz, practical authorities mediate between subjects and the ultimate reasons for which they should act. Authorities' directives should be based on such reasons, and they are justified only when compliance with the directives makes it more likely that people will comply with the underlying reasons that apply to them. But they can do that only if is possible to know what the directives require independent of appeal to those underlying reasons. Consider an example. Suppose we agree to resolve a dispute by consensus, but that after much discussion find ourselves in disagreement about whether some point is in fact part of the consensus view. It will do nothing to say that we should adopt it if it is indeed properly part of the consensus. On the other hand, we could agree to adopt it if it were endorsed by a majority vote, for we could determine the outcome of a vote without appeal to our ideas about what the consensus should be. Social sources can play this mediating role between persons and ultimate reasons, and because the nature of law is partly determined by its role in giving practical guidance, there is a theoretical reason for stopping at source-based considerations.
The third argument challenges an underlying idea of inclusive positivism, what we might call the Midas Principle. “Just as everything King Midas touched turned into gold, everything to which law refers becomes law … ” (Kelsen 1967, p. 161). Kelsen thought that it followed from this principle that “It is … possible for the legal order, by obliging the law-creating organs to respect or apply certain moral norms or political principles or opinions of experts to transform these norms, principles, or opinions into legal norms, and thus into sources of law” (Kelsen 1945, p. 132). (Though he regarded this transformation as effected by a sort of tacit legislation.) If sound, the Midas Principle holds in general and not only with respect to morality, as Kelsen makes clear. Suppose then that the Income Tax Act penalizes overdue accounts at 8% per annum. In a relevant case, an official can determine the content of a legal obligation only by calculating compound interest. Does this make mathematics part of the law? A contrary indication is that it is not subject to the rules of change in a legal system -- neither courts nor legislators can repeal or amend the law of commutativity. The same holds of other social norms, including the norms of foreign legal systems. A conflict-of-laws rule may direct a Canadian judge to apply Mexican law in a Canadian case. The conflicts rule is obviously part of the Canadian legal system. But the rule of Mexican law is not, for although Canadian officials can decide whether or not to apply it, they can neither change it nor repeal it, and best explanation for its existence and content makes no reference to Canadian society or its political system. In like manner, moral standards, logic, mathematics, principles of statistical inference, or English grammar, though all properly applied in cases, are not themselves the law, for legal organs have applicative but not creative power over them. The inclusivist thesis is actually groping towards an important, but different, truth. Law is an open normative system (Raz 1975, pp. 152-54): it adopts and enforces many other standards, including moral norms and the rules of social groups. There is no warrant for adopting the Midas Principle to explain how or why it does this.
4. Law and Its Merits
It may clarify the philosophical stakes in legal positivism by comparing it to a number of other theses with which it is sometimes wrongly identified, and not only by its opponents. (See also Hart, 1958, Fuesser, and Schauer.)
4.1 The Fallibility Thesis
Law does not necessarily satisfy the conditions by which it is appropriately assessed (Lyons 1984, p. 63, Hart 1994, pp. 185-6). Law should be just, but it may not be; it should promote the common good, but sometimes it doesn't; it should protect moral rights, but it may fail miserably. This we may call the moral fallibility thesis. The thesis is correct, but it is not the exclusive property of positivism. Aquinas accepts it, Fuller accepts it, Finnis accepts it, and Dworkin accepts it. Only a crude misunderstanding of ideas like Aquinas's claim that “an unjust law seems to be no law at all” might suggest the contrary. Law may have an essentially moral character and yet be morally deficient. Even if every law always does one kind of justice (formal justice; justice according to law), this does not entail that it does every kind of justice. Even if every law has a prima facie claim to be applied or obeyed, it does not follow that it has such a claim all things considered. The gap between these partial and conclusive judgments is all a natural law theory needs to accommodate the fallibility thesis. It is sometimes said that positivism gives a more secure grasp on the fallibility of law, for once we see that it is a social construction we will be less likely to accord it inappropriate deference and better prepared to engage in a clear-headed moral appraisal of the law. This claim has appealed to several positivists, including Bentham and Hart. But while this might follow from the truth of positivism, it cannot provide an argument for it. If law has an essentially moral character then it is obfuscating, not clarifying, to describe it as a source-based structure of governance.
4.2 The Separability Thesis
At one point, Hart identifies legal positivism with “the simple contention that it is no sense a necessary truth that laws reproduce or satisfy certain demands of morality, though in fact they have often done so” (1994, pp. 185-86). Many other philosophers, encouraged also by the title of Hart's famous essay, “Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals,” (1958) treat the theory as the denial that there is a necessary connection between law and morality -- they must be in some sense “separable” even if not in fact separate (Coleman, 1982). The separability thesis is generally construed so as to tolerate any contingent connection between morality and law, provided only that it is conceivable that the connection might fail. Thus, the separability thesis is consistent with all of the following: (i) moral principles are part of the law; (ii) law is usually, or even always in fact, valuable; (iii) the best explanation for the content of a society's laws includes reference to the moral ideals current in that society; and (iv) a legal system cannot survive unless it is seen to be, and thus in some measure actually is, just. All four claims are counted by the separability thesis as contingent connections only; they do not hold of all possible legal systems -- they probably don't even hold of all historical legal systems. As merely contingent truths, it is imagined that they do not affect the concept of law itself. (This is a defective view of concept-formation, but we may ignore that for these purposes.) If we think of the positivist thesis this way, we might interpret the difference between exclusive and inclusive positivism in terms of the scope of the modal operator:
(EP) It is necessarily the case that there is no connection between law and morality.
(IP) It is not necessarily the case that there is a connection between law and morality.
In reality, however, legal positivism is not to be identified with either thesis and each of them is false. There are many necessary “connections,” trivial and non-trivial, between law and morality. As John Gardner notes, legal positivism takes a position only one of them, it rejects any dependence of the existence of law on its merits (Gardner 2001). And with respect to this dependency relation, legal positivists are concerned with much more than the relationship between law and morality, for in the only sense in which they insist on a separation of law and morals they must insist also--and for the same reasons--on a separation of law and economics.
To exclude this dependency relation, however, is to leave intact many other interesting possibilities. For instance, it is possible that moral value derives from the sheer existence of law (Raz 1990, 165-70) If Hobbes is right, any order is better than chaos and in some circumstances order may be achievable only through positive law. Or perhaps in a Hegelian way every existing legal system expresses deliberate governance in a world otherwise dominated by chance; law is the spirit of the community come to self-consciousness. Notice that these claims are consistent with the fallibility thesis, for they do not deny that these supposedly good things might also bring evils, such as too much order or the will to power. Perhaps such derivative connections between law and morality are thought innocuous on the ground that they show more about human nature than they do about the nature of law. The same cannot be said of the following necessary connections between law and morality, each of which goes right to the heart of our concept of law:
(1) Necessarily, law deals with moral matters.
Kelsen writes, “Just as natural and positive law govern the same subject-matter, and relate, therefore, to the same norm-object, namely the mutual relationships of men -- so both also have in common the universal form of this governance, namely obligation.” (Kelsen 1928, p. 34) This is a matter of the content of all legal systems. Where there is law there is also morality, and they regulate the same matters by analogous techniques. Of course to say that law deals with morality's subject matter is not to say that it does so well, and to say that all legal systems create obligations is not to endorse the duties so created. This is broader than Hart's “minimum content” thesis according to which there are basic rules governing violence, property, fidelity, and kinship that any legal system must encompass if it aims at the survival of social creatures like ourselves (Hart 1994, pp. 193-200). Hart regards this as a matter of “natural necessity” and in that measure is willing to qualify his endorsement of the separability thesis. But even a society that prefers national glory or the worship of gods to survival will charge its legal system with the same tasks its morality pursues, so the necessary content of law is not dependent, as Hart thinks it is, on assuming certain facts about human nature and certain aims of social existence. He fails to notice that if human nature and life were different, then morality would be too and if law had any role in that society, it would inevitably deal with morality's subject matter. Unlike the rules of a health club, law has broad scope and reaches to the most important things in any society, whatever they may be. Indeed, our most urgent political worries about law and its claims flow from just this capacity to regulate our most vital interests, and law's wide reach must figure in any argument about its legitimacy and its claim to obedience.
(2) Necessarily, law makes moral claims on its subjects.
The law tells us what we must do, not merely what it would be virtuous or advantageous to do, and it requires us to act without regard to our individual self-interest but in the interests of other individuals, or in the public interest more generally (except when law itself permits otherwise). That is to say, law purports to obligate us. But to make categorical demands that people should act in the interests of others is to make moral demands on them. These demands may be misguided or unjustified for law is fallible; they may be made in a spirit that is cynical or half-hearted; but they must be the kind of thing that can be offered as, and possibly taken as, obligation-imposing requirements. For this reason neither a regime of “stark imperatives” (see Kramer, pp. 83-9) nor a price system would be a system of law, for neither could even lay claim to obligate its subjects. As with many other social institutions, what law, though its officials, claims determines its character independent of the truth or validity of those claims. Popes, for example, claim apostolic succession from St. Peter. The fact that they claim this partly determines what it is to be a Pope, even if it is a fiction, and even the Pope himself doubts its truth. The nature of law is similarly shaped by the self-image it adopts and projects to its subjects. To make moral demands on their compliance is to stake out a certain territory, to invite certain kinds of support and, possibly, opposition. It is precisely because law makes these claims that doctrines of legitimacy and political obligation take the shape and importance that they do.
(3) Necessarily, law is justice-apt.
In view of the normative function of law in creating and enforcing obligations and rights, it always makes sense to ask whether law is just, and where it is found deficient to demand reform. Legal systems are therefore the kind of thing that is apt for appraisal as just or unjust. This is a very significant feature of law. Not all human practices are justice-apt. It makes no sense to ask whether a certain fugue is just or to demand that it become so. The musical standards of fugal excellence are preeminently internal -- a good fugue is a good example of its genre; it should be melodic, interesting, inventive etc. -- and the further we get from these internal standards the less secure evaluative judgments about it become. While some formalists flirt with similar ideas about law, this is in fact inconsistent with law's place amongst human practices. Even if law has internal standards of merit -- virtues uniquely its own that inhere in its law-like character -- these cannot preclude or displace its assessment on independent criteria of justice. A fugue may be at its best when it has all the virtues of fugacity; but law is not best when it excels in legality; law must also be just. A society may therefore suffer not only from too little of the rule of law, but also from too much of it. This does not presuppose that justice is the only, or even the first, virtue of a legal system. It means that our concern for its justice as one of its virtues cannot be sidelined by any claim of the sort that law's purpose is to be law, to its most excellent degree. Law stands continuously exposed to demands for justification, and that too shapes its nature and role in our lives and culture.
These three theses establish connections between law and morality that are both necessary and highly significant. Each of them is consistent with the positivist thesis that the existence and content of law depends on social facts, not on its merits. Each of them contributes to an understanding of the nature of law. The familiar idea that legal positivism insists on the separability of law and morality is therefore significantly mistaken.
4.3 The Neutrality Thesis
The necessary content thesis and the justice-aptitude thesis together establish that law is not value-neutral. Although some lawyers regard this idea as a revelation (and others as provocation) it is in fact banal. The thought that law could be value neutral does not even rise to falsity -- it is simply incoherent. Law is a normative system, promoting certain values and repressing others. Law is not neutral between victim and murderer or between owner and thief. When people complain of the law's lack of neutrality, they are in fact voicing very different aspirations, such as the demand that it be fair, just, impartial, and so forth. A condition of law's achieving any of these ideals is that it is not neutral in either its aims or its effects.
Positivism is however sometimes more credibly associated with the idea that legal philosophy is or should be value-neutral. Kelsen, for example, says, “the function of the science of law is not the evaluation of its subject, but its value-free description” (1967, p. 68) and Hart at one point described his work as “descriptive sociology” (1994, p. v). Since it is well known that there are convincing arguments for the ineliminability of values in the social sciences, those who have taken on board Quinian holisms, Kuhnian paradigms, or Foucauldian espistemes, may suppose that positivism should be rejected a priori, as promising something that no theory can deliver.
There are complex questions here, but some advance may be made by noticing that Kelsen's alternatives are a false dichotomy. Legal positivism is indeed not an “evaluation of its subject”, i.e., an evaluation of the law. And to say that the existence of law depends on social facts does not commit one to thinking that it is a good thing that this is so. (Nor does it preclude it: see MacCormick and Campbell) Thus far Kelsen is on secure ground. But it does not follow that legal philosophy therefore offers a “value-free description” of its subject. There can be no such thing. Whatever the relation between facts and values, there is no doubt about the relationship between descriptions and values. Every description is value-laden. It selects and systematizes only a subset of the infinite number of facts about its subject. To describe law as resting on customary social rules is to omit many other truths about it including, for example, truths about its connection to the demand for paper or silk. Our warrant for doing this must rest on the view that the former facts are more important than the latter. In this way, all descriptions express choices about what is salient or significant, and these in turn cannot be understood without reference to values. So legal philosophy, even if not directly an evaluation of its subject is nonetheless “indirectly evaluative” (Dickson, 2001). Moreover, “law” itself is an anthropocentric subject, dependent not merely on our sensory embodiment but also, as its necessary connections to morality show, on our moral sense and capacities. Legal kinds such as courts, decisions, and rules will not appear in a purely physical description of the universe and may not even appear in every social description. (This may limit the prospects for a “naturalized” jurisprudence; though for a spirited defense of the contrary view, see Leiter)
It may seem, however, that legal positivism at least requires a stand on the so-called “fact-value” problem. There is no doubt that certain positivists, especially Kelsen, believe this to be so. In reality, positivism may cohabit with a range of views here -- value statements may be entailed by factual statements; values may supervene on facts; values may be kind of fact. Legal positivism requires only that it be in virtue of its facticity rather than its meritoriousness that something is law, and that we can describe that facticity without assessing its merits. In this regard, it is important to bear in mind that not every kind of evaluative statement would count among the merits of a given rule; its merits are only those values that could bear on its justification.
Evaluative argument is, of course, central to the philosophy of law more generally. No legal philosopher can be only a legal positivist. A complete theory of law requires also an account of what kinds of things could possibly count as merits of law (must law be efficient or elegant as well as just?); of what role law should play in adjudication (should valid law always be applied?); of what claim law has on our obedience (is there a duty to obey?); and also of the pivotal questions of what laws we should have and whether we should have law at all. Legal positivism does not aspire to answer these questions, though its claim that the existence and content of law depends only on social facts does give them shape
Legal positivism is the thesis that the existence and content of law depends on social facts and not on its merits. The English jurist John Austin (1790-1859) formulated it thus: “The existence of law is one thing; its merit and demerit another. Whether it be or be not is one enquiry; whether it be or be not conformable to an assumed standard, is a different enquiry.” (1832, p. 157) The positivist thesis does not say that law's merits are unintelligible, unimportant, or peripheral to the philosophy of law. It says that they do not determine whether laws or legal systems exist. Whether a society has a legal system depends on the presence of certain structures of governance, not on the extent to which it satisfies ideals of justice, democracy, or the rule of law. What laws are in force in that system depends on what social standards its officials recognize as authoritative; for example, legislative enactments, judicial decisions, or social customs. The fact that a policy would be just, wise, efficient, or prudent is never sufficient reason for thinking that it is actually the law, and the fact that it is unjust, unwise, inefficient or imprudent is never sufficient reason for doubting it. According to positivism, law is a matter of what has been posited (ordered, decided, practiced, tolerated, etc.); as we might say in a more modern idiom, positivism is the view that law is a social construction. Austin thought the thesis “simple and glaring.” While it is probably the dominant view among analytically inclined philosophers of law, it is also the subject of competing interpretations together with persistent criticisms and misunderstandings.
• 1. Development and Influence
• 2. The Existence and Sources of Law
• 3. Moral Principles and the Boundaries of Law
• 4. Law and Its Merits
• Bibliography
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1. Development and Influence
Legal positivism has a long history and a broad influence. It has antecedents in ancient political philosophy and is discussed, and the term itself introduced, in mediaeval legal and political thought (see Finnis 1996). The modern doctrine, however, owes little to these forbears. Its most important roots lie in the conventionalist political philosophies of Hobbes and Hume, and its first full elaboration is due to Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) whose account Austin adopted, modified, and popularized. For much of the next century an amalgam of their views, according to which law is the command of a sovereign backed by force, dominated legal positivism and English philosophical reflection about law. By the mid-twentieth century, however, this account had lost its influence among working legal philosophers. Its emphasis on legislative institutions was replaced by a focus on law-applying institutions such as courts, and its insistence of the role of coercive force gave way to theories emphasizing the systematic and normative character of law. The most important architects of this revised positivism are the Austrian jurist Hans Kelsen (1881-1973) and the two dominating figures in the analytic philosophy of law, H.L.A. Hart (1907-92) and Joseph Raz among whom there are clear lines of influence, but also important contrasts. Legal positivism's importance, however, is not confined to the philosophy of law. It can be seen throughout social theory, particularly in the works of Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, and also (though here unwittingly) among many lawyers, including the American “legal realists” and most contemporary feminist scholars. Although they disagree on many other points, these writers all acknowledge that law is essentially a matter of social fact. Some of them are, it is true, uncomfortable with the label “legal positivism” and therefore hope to escape it. Their discomfort is sometimes the product of confusion. Lawyers often use “positivist” abusively, to condemn a formalistic doctrine according to which law is always clear and, however pointless or wrong, is to be rigorously applied by officials and obeyed by subjects. It is doubtful that anyone ever held this view; but it is in any case false, it has nothing to do with legal positivism, and it is expressly rejected by all leading positivists. Among the philosophically literate another, more intelligible, misunderstanding may interfere. Legal positivism is here sometimes associated with the homonymic but independent doctrines of logical positivism (the meaning of a sentence is its mode of verification) or sociological positivism (social phenomena can be studied only through the methods of natural science). While there are historical connections, and also commonalities of temper, among these ideas, they are essentially different. The view that the existence of law depends on social facts does not rest on a particular semantic thesis, and it is compatible with a range of theories about how one investigates social facts, including non-naturalistic accounts. To say that the existence of law depends on facts and not on its merits is a thesis about the relation among laws, facts, and merits, and not otherwise a thesis about the individual relata. Hence, most traditional “natural law” moral doctrines--including the belief in a universal, objective morality grounded in human nature--do not contradict legal positivism. The only influential positivist moral theories are the views that moral norms are valid only if they have a source in divine commands or in social conventions. Such theists and relativists apply to morality the constraints that legal positivists think hold for law.
2. The Existence and Sources of Law
Every human society has some form of social order, some way of marking and encouraging approved behavior, deterring disapproved behavior, and resolving disputes. What then is distinctive of societies with legal systems and, within those societies, of their law? Before exploring some positivist answers, it bears emphasizing that these are not the only questions worth asking. While an understanding of the nature of law requires an account of what makes law distinctive, it also requires an understanding of what it has in common with other forms of social control. Some Marxists are positivists about the nature of law while insisting that its distinguishing characteristics matter less than its role in replicating and facilitating other forms of domination. (Though other Marxists disagree: see Pashukanis). They think that the specific nature of law casts little light on their primary concerns. But one can hardly know that in advance; it depends on what the nature of law actually is.
According to Bentham and Austin, law is a phenomenon of large societies with a sovereign: a determinate person or group who have supreme and absolute de facto power -- they are obeyed by all or most others but do not themselves similarly obey anyone else. The laws in that society are a subset of the sovereign's commands: general orders that apply to classes of actions and people and that are backed up by threat of force or “sanction.” This imperatival theory is positivist, for it identifies the existence of legal systems with patterns of command and obedience that can be ascertained without considering whether the sovereign has a moral right to rule or whether his commands are meritorious. It has two other distinctive features. The theory is monistic: it represents all laws as having a single form, imposing obligations on their subjects, though not on the sovereign himself. The imperativalist acknowledges that ultimate legislative power may be self-limiting, or limited externally by what public opinion will tolerate, and also that legal systems contain provisions that are not imperatives (for example, permissions, definitions, and so on). But they regard these as part of the non-legal material that is necessary for, and part of, every legal system. (Austin is a bit more liberal on this point). The theory is also reductivist, for it maintains that the normative language used in describing and stating the law -- talk of authority, rights, obligations, and so on -- can all be analyzed without remainder in non-normative terms, ultimately as concatenations of statements about power and obedience.
Imperatival theories are now without influence in legal philosophy (but see Ladenson and Morison). What survives of their outlook is the idea that legal theory must ultimately be rooted in some account of the political system, an insight that came to be shared by all major positivists save Kelsen. Their particular conception of a society under a sovereign commander, however, is friendless (except among Foucauldians, who strangely take this relic as the ideal-type of what they call “juridical” power). It is clear that in complex societies there may be no one who has all the attributes of sovereignty, for ultimate authority may be divided among organs and may itself be limited by law. Moreover, even when “sovereignty” is not being used in its legal sense it is nonetheless a normative concept. A legislator is one who has authority to make laws, and not merely someone with great social power, and it is doubtful that “habits of obedience” is a candidate reduction for explaining authority. Obedience is a normative concept. To distinguish it from coincidental compliance we need something like the idea of subjects being oriented to, or guided by, the commands. Explicating this will carry us far from the power-based notions with which classical positivism hoped to work. The imperativalists' account of obligation is also subject to decisive objections (Hart, 1994, pp. 26-78; and Hacker). Treating all laws as commands conceals important differences in their social functions, in the ways they operate in practical reasoning, and in the sort of justifications to which they are liable. For instance, laws conferring the power to marry command nothing; they do not obligate people to marry, or even to marry according to the prescribed formalities. Nor is reductivism any more plausible here: we speak of legal obligations when there is no probability of sanctions being applied and when there is no provision for sanctions (as in the duty of the highest courts to apply the law). Moreover, we take the existence of legal obligations to be a reason for imposing sanctions, not merely a consequence of it.
Hans Kelsen retains the imperativalists' monism but abandons their reductivism. On his view, law is characterized by a basic form and basic norm. The form of every law is that of a conditional order, directed at the courts, to apply sanctions if a certain behavior (the “delict”) is performed. On this view, law is an indirect system of guidance: it does not tell subjects what to do; it tells officials what to do to its subjects under certain conditions. Thus, what we ordinarily regard as the legal duty not to steal is for Kelsen merely a logical correlate of the primary norm which stipulates a sanction for stealing (1945, p. 61). The objections to imperatival monism apply also to this more sophisticated version: the reduction misses important facts, such as the point of having a prohibition on theft. (The courts are not indifferent between, on the one hand, people not stealing and, on the other, stealing and suffering the sanctions.) But in one respect the conditional sanction theory is in worse shape than is imperativalism, for it has no principled way to fix on the delict as the duty-defining condition of the sanction -- that is but one of a large number of relevant antecedent conditions, including the legal capacity of the offender, the jurisdiction of the judge, the constitutionality of the offense, and so forth. Which among all these is the content of a legal duty?
Kelsen's most important contribution lies in his attack on reductivism and his doctrine of the “basic norm.” He maintains that law is normative and must understood as such. Might does not make right -- not even legal right -- so the philosophy of law must explain the fact that law is taken to impose obligations on its subjects. Moreover, law is a normative system: “Law is not, as it is sometimes said, a rule. It is a set of rules having the kind of unity we understand by a system” (1945, p. 3). For the imperativalists, the unity of a legal system consists in the fact that all its laws are commanded by one sovereign. For Kelsen, it consists in the fact that they are all links in one chain of authority. For example, a by-law is legally valid because it is created by a corporation lawfully exercising the powers conferred on it by the legislature, which confers those powers in a manner provided by the constitution, which was itself created in a way provided by an earlier constitution. But what about the very first constitution, historically speaking? Its authority, says Kelsen, is “presupposed.” The condition for interpreting any legal norm as binding is that the first constitution is validated by the following “basic norm:” “the original constitution is to be obeyed.” Now, the basic norm cannot be a legal norm -- we cannot fully explain the bindingness of law by reference to more law. Nor can it be a social fact, for Kelsen maintains that the reason for the validity of a norm must always be another norm -- no ought from is. It follows, then, that a legal system must consist of norms all the way down. It bottoms in a hypothetical, transcendental norm that is the condition of the intelligibility of any (and all) other norms as binding. To “presuppose” this basic norm is not to endorse it as good or just -- resupposition is a cognitive stance only -- but it is, Kelsen thinks, the necessary precondition for a non-reductivist account of law as a normative system.
There are many difficulties with this, not least of which is the fact that if we are willing to tolerate the basic norm as a solution it is not clear why we thought there was a problem in the first place. One cannot say both that the basic norm is the norm presupposing which validates all inferior norms and also that an inferior norm is part of the legal system only if it is connected by a chain of validity to the basic norm. We need a way into the circle. Moreover, it draws the boundaries of legal systems incorrectly. The Canadian Constitution of 1982 was lawfully created by an Act of the U.K. Parliament, and on that basis Canadian law and English law should be parts of a single legal system, rooted in one basic norm: ‘The (first) U.K. constitution is to be obeyed.’ Yet no English law is binding in Canada, and a purported repeal of the Constitution Act by the U.K. would be without legal effect in Canada.
If law cannot ultimately be grounded in force, or in law, or in a presupposed norm, on what does its authority rest? The most influential solution is now H.L.A. Hart's. His solution resembles Kelsen's in its emphasis on the normative foundations of legal systems, but Hart rejects Kelsen's transcendentalist, Kantian view of authority in favour of an empirical, Weberian one. For Hart, the authority of law is social. The ultimate criterion of validity in a legal system is neither a legal norm nor a presupposed norm, but a social rule that exists only because it is actually practiced. Law ultimately rests on custom: customs about who shall have the authority to decide disputes, what they shall treat as binding reasons for decision, i.e. as sources of law, and how customs may be changed. Of these three “secondary rules,” as Hart calls them, the source-determining rule of recognition is most important, for it specifies the ultimate criteria of validity in the legal system. It exists only because it is practiced by officials, and it is not only the recognition rule (or rules) that best explains their practice, it is rule to which they actually appeal in arguments about what standards they are bound to apply. Hart's account is therefore conventionalist (see Marmor, and Coleman, 2001): ultimate legal rules are social norms, although they are neither the product of express agreement nor even conventions in the Schelling-Lewis sense (see Green 1999). Thus for Hart too the legal system is norms all the way down, but at its root is a social norm that has the kind of normative force that customs have. It is a regularity of behavior towards which officials take “the internal point of view:” they use it as a standard for guiding and evaluating their own and others' behavior, and this use is displayed in their conduct and speech, including the resort to various forms of social pressure to support the rule and the ready application of normative terms such as “duty” and “obligation” when invoking it.
It is an important feature of Hart's account that the rule of recognition is an official custom, and not a standard necessarily shared by the broader community. If the imperativalists' picture of the political system was pyramidal power, Hart's is more like Weber's rational bureaucracy. Law is normally a technical enterprise, characterized by a division of labour. Ordinary subjects' contribution to the existence of law may therefore amount to no more than passive compliance. Thus, Hart's necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a legal system are that “those rules of behavior which are valid according to the system's ultimate criteria of validity must be generally obeyed, and ... its rules of recognition specifying the criteria of legal validity and its rules of change and adjudication must be effectively accepted as common public standards of official behavior by its officials” (1994, p. 116). And this division of labour is not a normatively neutral fact about law; it is politically charged, for it sets up the possibility of law becoming remote from the life of a society, a hazard to which Hart is acutely alert (1994, p. 117; cf. Waldron).
Although Hart introduces the rule of recognition through a speculative anthropology of how it might emerge in response to certain deficiencies in a customary social order, he is not committed to the view that law is a cultural achievement. To the contrary, the idea that legal order is always a good thing, and that societies without it are deficient, is a familiar element of many anti-positivist views, beginning with Henry Maine's criticism of Austin on the ground that his theory would not apply to certain Indian villages. The objection embraces the error it seeks to avoid. It imperialistically assumes that it is always a bad thing to lack law, and then makes a dazzling inference from ought to is: if it is good to have law, then each society must have it, and the concept of law must be adjusted to show that it does. If one thinks that law is a many splendored thing, one will be tempted by a very wide concept of law, for it would seem improper to charge others with missing out. Positivism simply releases the harness. Law is a distinctive form of political order, not a moral achievement, and whether it is necessary or even useful depends entirely on its content and context. Societies without law may be perfectly adapted to their environments, missing nothing.
A positivist account of the existence and content of law, along any of the above lines, offers a theory of the validity of law in one of the two main senses of that term (see Harris, pp. 107-111). Kelsen says that validity is the specific mode of existence of a norm. An invalid marriage is not a special kind of marriage having the property of invalidity; it is not a marriage at all. In this sense a valid law one that is systemically valid in the jurisdiction -- it is part of the legal system. This is the question that positivists answer by reference to social sources. It is distinct from the idea of validity as moral propriety, i.e. a sound justification for respecting the norm. For the positivist, this depends on its merits. One indication that these senses differ is that one may know that a society has a legal system, and know what its laws are, without having any idea whether they are morally justified. For example, one may know that the law of ancient Athens included the punishment of ostracism without knowing whether it was justified, because one does not know enough about its effects, about the social context, and so forth.
No legal positivist argues that the systemic validity of law establishes its moral validity, i.e. that it should be obeyed by subjects or applied by judges. Even Hobbes, to whom this view is sometimes ascribed, required that law actually be able to keep the peace, failing which we owe it nothing. Bentham and Austin, as utilitarians, hold that such questions always turn on the consequences and both acknowledge that disobedience is therefore sometimes fully justified. Kelsen insists that “The science of law does not prescribe that one ought to obey the commands of the creator of the constitution” (1967, p. 204). Hart thinks that there is only a prima facie duty to obey, grounded in and thus limited by fairness -- so there is no obligation to unfair or pointless laws (Hart 1955). Raz goes further still, arguing that there isn't even a prima facie duty to obey the law, not even in a just state (Raz 1979, pp. 233-49). The peculiar accusation that positivists believe the law is always to be obeyed is without foundation. Hart's own view is that an overweening deference to law consorts more easily with theories that imbue it with moral ideals, permitting “an enormous overvaluation of the importance of the bare fact that a rule may be said to be a valid rule of law, as if this, once declared, was conclusive of the final moral question: ‘Ought this law to be obeyed?” (Hart 1958, p. 75).
3. Moral Principles and the Boundaries of Law
The most influential criticisms of legal positivism all flow, in one way or another, from the suspicion that it fails to give morality its due. A theory that insists on the facticity of law seems to contribute little to our understanding that law has important functions in making human life go well, that the rule of law is a prized ideal, and that the language and practice of law is highly moralized. Accordingly, positivism's critics maintain that the most important features of law are not to be found in its source-based character, but in law's capacity to advance the common good, to secure human rights, or to govern with integrity. (It is a curious fact about anti-positivist theories that, while they all insist on the moral nature of law, without exception they take its moral nature to be something good. The idea that law might of its very nature be morally problematic does not seem to have occurred to them.)
It is beyond doubt that moral and political considerations bear on legal philosophy. As Finnis says, the reasons we have for establishing, maintaining or reforming law include moral reasons, and these reasons therefore shape our legal concepts (p. 204). But which concepts? Once one concedes, as Finnis does, that the existence and content of law can be identified without recourse to moral argument, and that “human law is artefact and artifice; and not a conclusion from moral premises,” (p. 205) the Thomistic apparatus he tries to resuscitate is largely irrelevant to the truth of legal positivism. This vitiates also Lon Fuller's criticisms of Hart (Fuller, 1958 and 1969). Apart from some confused claims about adjudication, Fuller has two main points. First, he thinks that it isn't enough for a legal system to rest on customary social rules, since law could not guide behavior without also being at least minimally clear, consistent, public, prospective and so on -- that is, without exhibiting to some degree those virtues collectively called “the rule of law.” It suffices to note that this is perfectly consistent with law being source-based. Even if moral properties were identical with, or supervened upon, these rule-of-law properties, they do so in virtue of their rule-like character, and not their law-like character. Whatever virtues inhere in or follow from clear, consistent, prospective, and open practices can be found not only in law but in all other social practices with those features, including custom and positive morality. And these virtues are minor: there is little to be said in favour of a clear, consistent, prospective, public and impartially administered system of racial segregation, for example. Fuller's second worry is that if law is a matter of fact, then we are without an explanation of the duty to obey. He gloatingly asks how “an amoral datum called law could have the peculiar quality of creating an obligation to obey it” (Fuller, 1958). One possibility he neglects is that it doesn't. The fact that law claims to obligate is, of course, a different matter and is susceptible to other explanations (Green 2001). But even if Fuller is right in his unargued assumption, the “peculiar quality” whose existence he doubts is a familiar feature of many moral practices. Compare promises: whether a society has a practice of promising, and what someone has promised to do, are matters of social fact. Yet promising creates moral obligations of performance or compensation. An “amoral datum” may indeed figure, together with other premises, in a sound argument to moral conclusions.
While Finnis and Fuller's views are thus compatible with the positivist thesis, the same cannot be said of Ronald Dworkin's important works (Dworkin 1978 and 1986). Positivism's most significant critic rejects the theory on every conceivable level. He denies that there can be any general theory of the existence and content of law; he denies that local theories of particular legal systems can identify law without recourse to its merits, and he rejects the whole institutional focus of positivism. A theory of law is for Dworkin a theory of how cases ought to be decided and it begins, not with an account of political organization, but with an abstract ideal regulating the conditions under which governments may use coercive force over their subjects. Force must only be deployed, he claims, in accordance with principles laid down in advance. A society has a legal system only when, and to the extent that, it honors this ideal, and its law is the set of all considerations that the courts of such a society would be morally justified in applying, whether or not those considerations are determined by any source. To identify the law of a given society we must engage in moral and political argument, for the law is whatever requirements are consistent with an interpretation of its legal practices (subject to a threshold condition of fit) that shows them to be best justified in light of the animating ideal. In addition to those philosophical considerations, Dworkin invokes two features of the phenomenology of judging, as he sees it. He finds deep controversy among lawyers and judges about how important cases should be decided, and he finds diversity in the considerations that they hold relevant to deciding them. The controversy suggests to him that law cannot rest on an official consensus, and the diversity suggests that there is no single social rule that validates all relevant reasons, moral and non-moral, for judicial decisions.
Dworkin's rich and complex arguments have attracted various lines of reply from positivists. One response denies the relevance of the phenomenological claims. Controversy is a matter of degree, and a consensus-defeating amount of it is not proved by the existence of adversarial argument in the high courts, or indeed in any courts. As important is the broad range of settled law that gives rise to few doubts and which guides social life outside the courtroom. As for the diversity argument, so far from being a refutation of positivism, this is an entailment of it. Positivism identifies law, not with all valid reasons for decision, but only with the source-based subset of them. It is no part of the positivist claim that the rule of recognition tells us how to decide cases, or even tells us all the relevant reasons for decision. Positivists accept that moral, political or economic considerations are properly operative in some legal decisions, just as linguistic or logical ones are. Modus ponens holds in court as much as outside, but not because it was enacted by the legislature or decided by the judges, and the fact that there is no social rule that validates both modus ponens and also the Municipalities Act is true but irrelevant. The authority of principles of logic (or morality) is not something to be explained by legal philosophy; the authority of acts of Parliament must be; and accounting for the difference is a central task of the philosophy of law.
Other positivists respond differently to Dworkin's phenomenological points, accepting their relevance but modifying the theory to accommodate them. So-called “inclusive positivists” (e.g., Waluchow (to whom the term is due), Coleman, Soper and Lyons) argue that the merit-based considerations may indeed be part of the law, if they are explicitly or implicitly made so by source-based considerations. For example, Canada's constitution explicitly authorizes for breach of Charter rights, “such remedy as the court considers appropriate and just in the circumstances.” In determining which remedies might be legally valid, judges are thus expressly told to take into account their morality. And judges may develop a settled practice of doing this whether or not it is required by any enactment; it may become customary practice in certain types of cases. Reference to moral principles may also be implicit in the web of judge-made law, for instance in the common law principle that no one should profit from his own wrongdoing. Such moral considerations, inclusivists claim, are part of the law because the sources make it so, and thus Dworkin is right that the existence and content of law turns on its merits, and wrong only in his explanation of this fact. Legal validity depends on morality, not because of the interpretative consequences of some ideal about how the government may use force, but because that is one of the things that may be customarily recognized as an ultimate determinant of legal validity. It is the sources that make the merits relevant.
To understand and assess this response, some preliminary clarifications are needed. First, it is not plausible to hold that the merits are relevant to a judicial decision only when the sources make it so. It would be odd to think that justice is a reason for decision only because some source directs an official to decide justly. It is of the nature of justice that it properly bears on certain controversies. In legal decisions, especially important ones, moral and political considerations are present of their own authority; they do not need sources to propel them into action. On the contrary, we expect to see a sourceÑa statute, a decision, or a conventionÑwhen judges are constrained not to appeal directly to the merits. Second, the fact that there is moral language in judicial decisions does not establish the presence of moral tests for law, for sources come in various guises. What sounds like moral reasoning in the courts is sometimes really source-based reasoning. For example, when the Supreme Court of Canada says that a publication is criminally “obscene” only if it is harmful, it is not applying J.S. Mill's harm principle, for what that court means by “harmful” is that it is regarded by the community as degrading or intolerable. Those are source-based matters, not moral ones. This is just one of many appeals to positive morality, i.e. to the moral customs actually practiced by a given society, and no one denies that positive morality may be a source of law. Moreover, it is important to remember that law is dynamic and that even a decision that does apply morality itself becomes a source of law, in the first instance for the parties and possibly for others as well. Over time, by the doctrine of precedent where it exists or through the gradual emergence of an interpretative convention where it does not, this gives a factual edge to normative terms. Thus, if a court decides that money damages are in some instances not a “just remedy” then this fact will join with others in fixing what “justice” means for these purposes. This process may ultimately detach legal concepts from their moral analogs (thus, legal “murder” may require no intention to kill, legal “fault” no moral blameworthiness, an “equitable” remedy may be manifestly unfair, etc.)
Bearing in mind these complications, however, there undeniably remains a great deal of moral reasoning in adjudication. Courts are often called on to decide what would reasonable, fair, just, cruel, etc. by explicit or implicit requirement of statute or common law, or because this is the only proper or intelligible way to decide. Hart sees this as happening pre-eminently in hard cases in which, owing to the indeterminacy of legal rules or conflicts among them, judges are left with the discretion to make new law. “Discretion,” however, may be a potentially misleading term here. First, discretionary judgments are not arbitrary: they are guided by merit-based considerations, and they may also be guided by law even though not fully determined by it -- judges may be empowered to make certain decisions and yet under a legal duty to make them in a particular way, say, in conformity with the spirit of preexisting law or with certain moral principles (Raz 1994, pp. 238-53). Second, Hart's account might wrongly be taken to suggest that there are fundamentally two kinds of cases, easy ones and hard ones, distinguished by the sorts of reasoning appropriate to each. A more perspicuous way of putting it would be to say that there are two kinds of reasons that are operative in every case: source-based reasons and non-source-based reasons. Law application and law creation are continuous activities for, as Kelsen correctly argued, every legal decision is partly determined by law and partly underdetermined: “The higher norm cannot bind in every direction the act by which it is applied. There must always be more or less room for discretion, so that the higher norm in relation to the lower one can only have the character of a frame to be filled by this act” (1967, p. 349). This is a general truth about norms. There are infinitely many ways of complying with a command to “close the door” (quickly or slowly, with one's right hand or left, etc.) Thus, even an “easy case” will contain discretionary elements. Sometimes such residual discretion is of little importance; sometimes it is central; and a shift from marginal to major can happen in a flash with changes in social or technological circumstances. That is one of the reasons for rejecting a strict doctrine of separation of powers -- Austin called it a “childish fiction” -- according to which judges only apply and never make the law, and with it any literal interpretation of Dworkin's ideal that coercion be deployed only according to principles laid down in advance.
It has to be said, however, that Hart himself does not consistently view legal references to morality as marking a zone of discretion. In a passing remark in the first edition of The Concept of Law, he writes, “In some legal systems, as in the United States, the ultimate criteria of legal validity explicitly incorporate principles of justice or substantive moral values …” (1994, p. 204). This thought sits uneasily with other doctrines of importance to his theory. For Hart also says that when judges exercise moral judgment in the penumbra of legal rules to suppose that their results were already part of existing law is “in effect, an invitation to revise our concept of what a legal rule is …” (1958, p. 72). The concept of a legal rule, that is, does not include all correctly reasoned elaborations or determinations of that rule. Later, however, Hart comes to see his remark about the U.S. constitution as foreshadowing inclusive positivism (“soft positivism,” as he calls it). Hart's reasons for this shift are obscure (Green 1996). He remained clear about how we should understand ordinary statutory interpretation, for instance, where the legislature has directed that an applicant should have a “reasonable time” or that a regulator may permit only a “fair price:” these grant a bounded discretion to decide the cases on their merits. Why then does Hart -- and even more insistently, Waluchow and Coleman -- come to regard constitutional adjudication differently? Is there any reason to think that a constitution permitting only a “just remedy” requires a different analysis than a statute permitting only a “fair rate?”
One might hazard the following guess. Some of these philosophers think that constitutional law expresses the ultimate criteria of legal validity: because unjust remedies are constitutionally invalid and void ab initio, legally speaking they never existed (Waluchow). That being so, morality sometimes determines the existence or content of law. If this is the underlying intuition, it is misleading, for the rule of recognition is not to be found in constitutions. The rule of recognition is the ultimate criterion (or set of criteria) of legal validity. If one knows what the constitution of a country is, one knows some of its law; but one may know what the rule of recognition is without knowing any of its laws. You may know that acts of the Bundestag are a source of law in Germany but not be able to name or interpret a single one of them. And constitutional law is itself subject to the ultimate criteria of systemic validity. Whether a statute, decision or convention is part of a country's constitution can only be determined by applying the rule of recognition. The provisions of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. constitution, for example, are not the rule of recognition in the U.S., for there is an intra-systemic answer to the question why that Amendment is valid law. The U.S. constitution, like that of all other countries, is law only because it was created in ways provided by law (through amendment or court decision) or in ways that came to be accepted as creating law (by constitutional convention and custom). Constitutional cases thus raise no philosophical issue not already present in ordinary statutory interpretation, where inclusive positivists seem content with the theory of judicial discretion. It is, of course, open to them to adopt a unified view and treat every explicit or implicit legal reference to morality -- in cases, statutes, constitutions, and customs -- as establishing moral tests for the existence of law. (Although at that point it is unclear how their view would differ from Dworkin's.) So we should consider the wider question: why not regard as law everything referred to by law?
Exclusive positivists offer three main arguments for stopping at social sources. The first and most important is that it captures and systematizes distinctions we regularly make and that we have good reason to continue to make. We assign blame and responsibility differently when we think that a bad decision was mandated by the sources than we do when we think that it flowed from a judge's exercise of moral or political judgement. When considering who should be appointed to the judiciary, we are concerned not only with their acumen as jurists, but also with their morality and politics--and we take different things as evidence of these traits. These are deeply entrenched distinctions, and there is no reason to abandon them.
The second reason for stopping at sources is that this is demonstrably consistent with key features of law's role in practical reasoning. The most important argument to this conclusion is due to Raz (1994, pp. 210-37). For a related argument see Shapiro. For criticism see Perry, Waluchow, Coleman 2001, and Himma.) Although law does not necessarily have legitimate authority, it lays claim to it, and can intelligibly do so only if it is the kind of thing that could have legitimate authority. It may fail, therefore, in certain ways only, for example, by being unjust, pointless, or ineffective. But law cannot fail to be a candidate authority, for it is constituted in that role by our political practices. According to Raz, practical authorities mediate between subjects and the ultimate reasons for which they should act. Authorities' directives should be based on such reasons, and they are justified only when compliance with the directives makes it more likely that people will comply with the underlying reasons that apply to them. But they can do that only if is possible to know what the directives require independent of appeal to those underlying reasons. Consider an example. Suppose we agree to resolve a dispute by consensus, but that after much discussion find ourselves in disagreement about whether some point is in fact part of the consensus view. It will do nothing to say that we should adopt it if it is indeed properly part of the consensus. On the other hand, we could agree to adopt it if it were endorsed by a majority vote, for we could determine the outcome of a vote without appeal to our ideas about what the consensus should be. Social sources can play this mediating role between persons and ultimate reasons, and because the nature of law is partly determined by its role in giving practical guidance, there is a theoretical reason for stopping at source-based considerations.
The third argument challenges an underlying idea of inclusive positivism, what we might call the Midas Principle. “Just as everything King Midas touched turned into gold, everything to which law refers becomes law … ” (Kelsen 1967, p. 161). Kelsen thought that it followed from this principle that “It is … possible for the legal order, by obliging the law-creating organs to respect or apply certain moral norms or political principles or opinions of experts to transform these norms, principles, or opinions into legal norms, and thus into sources of law” (Kelsen 1945, p. 132). (Though he regarded this transformation as effected by a sort of tacit legislation.) If sound, the Midas Principle holds in general and not only with respect to morality, as Kelsen makes clear. Suppose then that the Income Tax Act penalizes overdue accounts at 8% per annum. In a relevant case, an official can determine the content of a legal obligation only by calculating compound interest. Does this make mathematics part of the law? A contrary indication is that it is not subject to the rules of change in a legal system -- neither courts nor legislators can repeal or amend the law of commutativity. The same holds of other social norms, including the norms of foreign legal systems. A conflict-of-laws rule may direct a Canadian judge to apply Mexican law in a Canadian case. The conflicts rule is obviously part of the Canadian legal system. But the rule of Mexican law is not, for although Canadian officials can decide whether or not to apply it, they can neither change it nor repeal it, and best explanation for its existence and content makes no reference to Canadian society or its political system. In like manner, moral standards, logic, mathematics, principles of statistical inference, or English grammar, though all properly applied in cases, are not themselves the law, for legal organs have applicative but not creative power over them. The inclusivist thesis is actually groping towards an important, but different, truth. Law is an open normative system (Raz 1975, pp. 152-54): it adopts and enforces many other standards, including moral norms and the rules of social groups. There is no warrant for adopting the Midas Principle to explain how or why it does this.
4. Law and Its Merits
It may clarify the philosophical stakes in legal positivism by comparing it to a number of other theses with which it is sometimes wrongly identified, and not only by its opponents. (See also Hart, 1958, Fuesser, and Schauer.)
4.1 The Fallibility Thesis
Law does not necessarily satisfy the conditions by which it is appropriately assessed (Lyons 1984, p. 63, Hart 1994, pp. 185-6). Law should be just, but it may not be; it should promote the common good, but sometimes it doesn't; it should protect moral rights, but it may fail miserably. This we may call the moral fallibility thesis. The thesis is correct, but it is not the exclusive property of positivism. Aquinas accepts it, Fuller accepts it, Finnis accepts it, and Dworkin accepts it. Only a crude misunderstanding of ideas like Aquinas's claim that “an unjust law seems to be no law at all” might suggest the contrary. Law may have an essentially moral character and yet be morally deficient. Even if every law always does one kind of justice (formal justice; justice according to law), this does not entail that it does every kind of justice. Even if every law has a prima facie claim to be applied or obeyed, it does not follow that it has such a claim all things considered. The gap between these partial and conclusive judgments is all a natural law theory needs to accommodate the fallibility thesis. It is sometimes said that positivism gives a more secure grasp on the fallibility of law, for once we see that it is a social construction we will be less likely to accord it inappropriate deference and better prepared to engage in a clear-headed moral appraisal of the law. This claim has appealed to several positivists, including Bentham and Hart. But while this might follow from the truth of positivism, it cannot provide an argument for it. If law has an essentially moral character then it is obfuscating, not clarifying, to describe it as a source-based structure of governance.
4.2 The Separability Thesis
At one point, Hart identifies legal positivism with “the simple contention that it is no sense a necessary truth that laws reproduce or satisfy certain demands of morality, though in fact they have often done so” (1994, pp. 185-86). Many other philosophers, encouraged also by the title of Hart's famous essay, “Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals,” (1958) treat the theory as the denial that there is a necessary connection between law and morality -- they must be in some sense “separable” even if not in fact separate (Coleman, 1982). The separability thesis is generally construed so as to tolerate any contingent connection between morality and law, provided only that it is conceivable that the connection might fail. Thus, the separability thesis is consistent with all of the following: (i) moral principles are part of the law; (ii) law is usually, or even always in fact, valuable; (iii) the best explanation for the content of a society's laws includes reference to the moral ideals current in that society; and (iv) a legal system cannot survive unless it is seen to be, and thus in some measure actually is, just. All four claims are counted by the separability thesis as contingent connections only; they do not hold of all possible legal systems -- they probably don't even hold of all historical legal systems. As merely contingent truths, it is imagined that they do not affect the concept of law itself. (This is a defective view of concept-formation, but we may ignore that for these purposes.) If we think of the positivist thesis this way, we might interpret the difference between exclusive and inclusive positivism in terms of the scope of the modal operator:
(EP) It is necessarily the case that there is no connection between law and morality.
(IP) It is not necessarily the case that there is a connection between law and morality.
In reality, however, legal positivism is not to be identified with either thesis and each of them is false. There are many necessary “connections,” trivial and non-trivial, between law and morality. As John Gardner notes, legal positivism takes a position only one of them, it rejects any dependence of the existence of law on its merits (Gardner 2001). And with respect to this dependency relation, legal positivists are concerned with much more than the relationship between law and morality, for in the only sense in which they insist on a separation of law and morals they must insist also--and for the same reasons--on a separation of law and economics.
To exclude this dependency relation, however, is to leave intact many other interesting possibilities. For instance, it is possible that moral value derives from the sheer existence of law (Raz 1990, 165-70) If Hobbes is right, any order is better than chaos and in some circumstances order may be achievable only through positive law. Or perhaps in a Hegelian way every existing legal system expresses deliberate governance in a world otherwise dominated by chance; law is the spirit of the community come to self-consciousness. Notice that these claims are consistent with the fallibility thesis, for they do not deny that these supposedly good things might also bring evils, such as too much order or the will to power. Perhaps such derivative connections between law and morality are thought innocuous on the ground that they show more about human nature than they do about the nature of law. The same cannot be said of the following necessary connections between law and morality, each of which goes right to the heart of our concept of law:
(1) Necessarily, law deals with moral matters.
Kelsen writes, “Just as natural and positive law govern the same subject-matter, and relate, therefore, to the same norm-object, namely the mutual relationships of men -- so both also have in common the universal form of this governance, namely obligation.” (Kelsen 1928, p. 34) This is a matter of the content of all legal systems. Where there is law there is also morality, and they regulate the same matters by analogous techniques. Of course to say that law deals with morality's subject matter is not to say that it does so well, and to say that all legal systems create obligations is not to endorse the duties so created. This is broader than Hart's “minimum content” thesis according to which there are basic rules governing violence, property, fidelity, and kinship that any legal system must encompass if it aims at the survival of social creatures like ourselves (Hart 1994, pp. 193-200). Hart regards this as a matter of “natural necessity” and in that measure is willing to qualify his endorsement of the separability thesis. But even a society that prefers national glory or the worship of gods to survival will charge its legal system with the same tasks its morality pursues, so the necessary content of law is not dependent, as Hart thinks it is, on assuming certain facts about human nature and certain aims of social existence. He fails to notice that if human nature and life were different, then morality would be too and if law had any role in that society, it would inevitably deal with morality's subject matter. Unlike the rules of a health club, law has broad scope and reaches to the most important things in any society, whatever they may be. Indeed, our most urgent political worries about law and its claims flow from just this capacity to regulate our most vital interests, and law's wide reach must figure in any argument about its legitimacy and its claim to obedience.
(2) Necessarily, law makes moral claims on its subjects.
The law tells us what we must do, not merely what it would be virtuous or advantageous to do, and it requires us to act without regard to our individual self-interest but in the interests of other individuals, or in the public interest more generally (except when law itself permits otherwise). That is to say, law purports to obligate us. But to make categorical demands that people should act in the interests of others is to make moral demands on them. These demands may be misguided or unjustified for law is fallible; they may be made in a spirit that is cynical or half-hearted; but they must be the kind of thing that can be offered as, and possibly taken as, obligation-imposing requirements. For this reason neither a regime of “stark imperatives” (see Kramer, pp. 83-9) nor a price system would be a system of law, for neither could even lay claim to obligate its subjects. As with many other social institutions, what law, though its officials, claims determines its character independent of the truth or validity of those claims. Popes, for example, claim apostolic succession from St. Peter. The fact that they claim this partly determines what it is to be a Pope, even if it is a fiction, and even the Pope himself doubts its truth. The nature of law is similarly shaped by the self-image it adopts and projects to its subjects. To make moral demands on their compliance is to stake out a certain territory, to invite certain kinds of support and, possibly, opposition. It is precisely because law makes these claims that doctrines of legitimacy and political obligation take the shape and importance that they do.
(3) Necessarily, law is justice-apt.
In view of the normative function of law in creating and enforcing obligations and rights, it always makes sense to ask whether law is just, and where it is found deficient to demand reform. Legal systems are therefore the kind of thing that is apt for appraisal as just or unjust. This is a very significant feature of law. Not all human practices are justice-apt. It makes no sense to ask whether a certain fugue is just or to demand that it become so. The musical standards of fugal excellence are preeminently internal -- a good fugue is a good example of its genre; it should be melodic, interesting, inventive etc. -- and the further we get from these internal standards the less secure evaluative judgments about it become. While some formalists flirt with similar ideas about law, this is in fact inconsistent with law's place amongst human practices. Even if law has internal standards of merit -- virtues uniquely its own that inhere in its law-like character -- these cannot preclude or displace its assessment on independent criteria of justice. A fugue may be at its best when it has all the virtues of fugacity; but law is not best when it excels in legality; law must also be just. A society may therefore suffer not only from too little of the rule of law, but also from too much of it. This does not presuppose that justice is the only, or even the first, virtue of a legal system. It means that our concern for its justice as one of its virtues cannot be sidelined by any claim of the sort that law's purpose is to be law, to its most excellent degree. Law stands continuously exposed to demands for justification, and that too shapes its nature and role in our lives and culture.
These three theses establish connections between law and morality that are both necessary and highly significant. Each of them is consistent with the positivist thesis that the existence and content of law depends on social facts, not on its merits. Each of them contributes to an understanding of the nature of law. The familiar idea that legal positivism insists on the separability of law and morality is therefore significantly mistaken.
4.3 The Neutrality Thesis
The necessary content thesis and the justice-aptitude thesis together establish that law is not value-neutral. Although some lawyers regard this idea as a revelation (and others as provocation) it is in fact banal. The thought that law could be value neutral does not even rise to falsity -- it is simply incoherent. Law is a normative system, promoting certain values and repressing others. Law is not neutral between victim and murderer or between owner and thief. When people complain of the law's lack of neutrality, they are in fact voicing very different aspirations, such as the demand that it be fair, just, impartial, and so forth. A condition of law's achieving any of these ideals is that it is not neutral in either its aims or its effects.
Positivism is however sometimes more credibly associated with the idea that legal philosophy is or should be value-neutral. Kelsen, for example, says, “the function of the science of law is not the evaluation of its subject, but its value-free description” (1967, p. 68) and Hart at one point described his work as “descriptive sociology” (1994, p. v). Since it is well known that there are convincing arguments for the ineliminability of values in the social sciences, those who have taken on board Quinian holisms, Kuhnian paradigms, or Foucauldian espistemes, may suppose that positivism should be rejected a priori, as promising something that no theory can deliver.
There are complex questions here, but some advance may be made by noticing that Kelsen's alternatives are a false dichotomy. Legal positivism is indeed not an “evaluation of its subject”, i.e., an evaluation of the law. And to say that the existence of law depends on social facts does not commit one to thinking that it is a good thing that this is so. (Nor does it preclude it: see MacCormick and Campbell) Thus far Kelsen is on secure ground. But it does not follow that legal philosophy therefore offers a “value-free description” of its subject. There can be no such thing. Whatever the relation between facts and values, there is no doubt about the relationship between descriptions and values. Every description is value-laden. It selects and systematizes only a subset of the infinite number of facts about its subject. To describe law as resting on customary social rules is to omit many other truths about it including, for example, truths about its connection to the demand for paper or silk. Our warrant for doing this must rest on the view that the former facts are more important than the latter. In this way, all descriptions express choices about what is salient or significant, and these in turn cannot be understood without reference to values. So legal philosophy, even if not directly an evaluation of its subject is nonetheless “indirectly evaluative” (Dickson, 2001). Moreover, “law” itself is an anthropocentric subject, dependent not merely on our sensory embodiment but also, as its necessary connections to morality show, on our moral sense and capacities. Legal kinds such as courts, decisions, and rules will not appear in a purely physical description of the universe and may not even appear in every social description. (This may limit the prospects for a “naturalized” jurisprudence; though for a spirited defense of the contrary view, see Leiter)
It may seem, however, that legal positivism at least requires a stand on the so-called “fact-value” problem. There is no doubt that certain positivists, especially Kelsen, believe this to be so. In reality, positivism may cohabit with a range of views here -- value statements may be entailed by factual statements; values may supervene on facts; values may be kind of fact. Legal positivism requires only that it be in virtue of its facticity rather than its meritoriousness that something is law, and that we can describe that facticity without assessing its merits. In this regard, it is important to bear in mind that not every kind of evaluative statement would count among the merits of a given rule; its merits are only those values that could bear on its justification.
Evaluative argument is, of course, central to the philosophy of law more generally. No legal philosopher can be only a legal positivist. A complete theory of law requires also an account of what kinds of things could possibly count as merits of law (must law be efficient or elegant as well as just?); of what role law should play in adjudication (should valid law always be applied?); of what claim law has on our obedience (is there a duty to obey?); and also of the pivotal questions of what laws we should have and whether we should have law at all. Legal positivism does not aspire to answer these questions, though its claim that the existence and content of law depends only on social facts does give them shape
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