'n Herkouing van die regs-, owerheidsgesags- en staatsbegrippe*

Abstract

The article contains a recapitulation of the concepts of law, of state authority and of the state. The author provides a set of defining postulations at the beginning of the article to support his discussion. In the first part the concern is with the fact that ‘law’ encompasses all the ordering laws of the universe. Law in its narrower ‘juridical’ sense has to do with man in his temporal existence. Characteristics of juridical laws are outlined briefly. 'Law' is then seen to be the composite of the prescriptive rules by means of which a legal community is ordered juridically. These rules are positivized by office-bearers within the community, adhering to minimum demands and limits demanded by creation without necessarily being optimal.