Lon Fuller’s Philosophical Affiliation: Prescriptive Legal Positivism (Neither Natural Law Theory nor Principialism)

Abstract

In this paper I will expose what I consider to be the appropriate meaning of Fuller's theses on the internal morality of law. After having argued that the thesis of internal morality of law does not say much about the connection between law and morality in the sense that this subject is normally discussed in the debates between supporters and critics of legal positivism, I will explain in what sense, for Fuller, law is a moral phenomenon. That will allow me to take a stand on the controversial question about the author’s philosophical affiliation: I will argue that Fuller's legal philosophy is the opposite of a natural law theory or a non-positivist principialist conception of the law and that prescriptive or ethical legal positivism is the legal philosophy with which Fuller can be associated.