The Formal Validity, Efficacy, and Acceptability of Legal Norms

Abstract

In standard language, the expression “the law in force” is tautological in a rather interesting way. For example, Webster’s dictionary defines “having force” as its characteristic of validity. In other words, “this rule has force” is the same as saying “this rule is valid”. Such a definition, however, does not allow us to go any further as, when we use language in this way, the problem is the concept of validity in itself (Conte and Cabrera, 1995, 17; Garzón Valdés 1987, 41). The answer to that problem requires a distinction between three concepts of validity, three ways of speaking about how a norm is a part of the legal order.