Philosophy:Hart–Devlin debate

Short description: Legal philosophy debate

The Hart–Devlin debate was a famous debate in the mid-twentieth century between legal philosophers Patrick Devlin and H. L. A. Hart about whether the law is a suitable tool for the enforcement of morality. The debate arose in the context of a proposal to decriminalize homosexuality in the United Kingdom. Devlin argued that the law is a suitable tool to enforce morality, while Hart disagreed.

See also

• Legal moralism

Sources

• Allan, James (2017). "Revisiting the Hart-Devlin Debate: At the Periphery and By the Numbers". San Diego Law Review 54 (2): 423. ISSN 0036-4037. https://digital.sandiego.edu/sdlr/vol54/iss2/13/. 
• Cane, Peter (2006). "Taking Law Seriously: Starting Points of the Hart/Devlin Debate". The Journal of Ethics 10 (1/2): 21–51. ISSN 1382-4554. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25115849. 
• Caron, Yves (1969). "The Legal Enforcement of Morals and the So-Called Hart-Devlin Controversy". McGill Law Journal 15 (1). https://lawjournal.mcgill.ca/article/the-legal-enforcement-of-morals-and-the-so-called-hart-devlin-controversy/. 
• Cranor, Carl F. (1983). "Bibliographical essay / the hart‐Devlin debate". Criminal Justice Ethics (Informa UK Limited) 2 (1): 59–65. doi:10.1080/0731129x.1983.9991720. ISSN 0731-129X. 
• Feinberg, Joel (1987). "Some unswept debris from the hart-devlin debate". Synthese (Springer Science and Business Media LLC) 72 (2): 249–275. doi:10.1007/bf00413641. ISSN 0039-7857. 
• George, Robert P. (1995) (in en). Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-102960-8. 
• HÄYRY, HETA (1991). "Liberalism and Legal Moralism: The Hart-Devlin Debate and Beyond". Ratio Juris (Wiley) 4 (2): 202–218. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9337.1991.tb00093.x. ISSN 0952-1917. 
• Miller, B. W. (2010). "Morals Laws in an Age of Rights: Hart and Devlin at the Supreme Court of Canada". The American Journal of Jurisprudence (Oxford University Press (OUP)) 55 (1): 79–103. doi:10.1093/ajj/55.1.79. ISSN 0065-8995. 
• Richter, Duncan J. (2001). "Social Integrity and Private ‘Immorality’ The Hart-Devlin Debate Reconsidered". Essays in Philosophy 2 (2): 55–65. doi:10.5840/eip2001223. ISSN 1526-0569. 
• Stanton-Ife, John (2022-01-29). "The Limits of Law". https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/law-limits/. 
• "Law and Morality: The Hart-Devlin Debate - 22 - v3 - Cavendish: Jurisp". 2002-02-14. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781843144373-22/law-morality-hart-devlin-debate-routledge-cavendish.