RULE OF RECOGNITION
rule of recognition.In the legal theory of H.L.A. Hart, a legal system’s fundamental rule, by
which all other rules are identified and understood. • In The Concept of Law (1961), Hart contends
that a society’s legal system is centered on rules. There are primary rules of obligation, which
prescribe how a person should act in society, and secondary rules, by which the primary rules are
created, identified, changed, and understood. A “rule of recognition” is a secondary rule, and
serves to instruct citizens on when a pronouncement or societal principle constitutes a rule of
obligation. Cf. RULES OF CHANGE; basic norm under NORM. — Sometimes shortened to
recognition.
“This rule [the rule of recognition] may amount to no more than specifying a list of primary
rules carved on a public monument. Or it may actually be a complete set of rules ….” Martin P.
Golding, Philosophy of Law 44 (1975). [Blacks Law 8th]