By being based on the will of men it is distinguished from the moral law
(the commandment of morality); this is not based on men's willing a
certain procedure, but on the fact that this procedure corresponds to
the final purpose of all human procedure. The maxim, "Love your enemies,
bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those
who abuse and persecute you," is a moral law; so is the maxim, "Act so
that the maxims of your will might at all times serve as the principles
of a general legislation." For the correctness of such a procedure is
not founded on the fact that other men will have it, but on the fact
that it corresponds to the final purpose of all human procedure.
By being based on the will of men the legal norm is distinguished also
from good manners; these are not based on the fact that men will a
certain procedure, but on the fact that they themselves proceed in a
certain way. It is manners that one goes to a ball in a dress coat and
white gloves, uses his knife at table only for cutting, begs the
daughter of the house for a dance or at least one round, takes leave of
the master and mistress of the house, and lastly presses a tip into the
servant's hand; for the correctness of such a behavior is not based on
the fact that other men ask this of us,--to those who start a new
fashion it is often actually unpleasant to find that the fashion is
spreading to more extensive circles,--but solely on the fact that other
men themselves behave so, and that we want "not to be peculiar," "not to
make ourselves conspicuous," "to do like the rest," etc.
By being based on a will which relates at once to those whose will it is
and to others whose will it is not, it is distinguished on the one hand
from an arbitrary command, in which one's will applies only to others,
and on the other from a resolution, in which it applies only to himself.
It is an arbitrary command when Cortes with his Spaniards commands the
Mexicans to bring out their gold, or when a band of robbers forbids a
frightened peasantry to betray their hiding-place; here a human will
decides, indeed, but a will that relates only to other men, and not at
the same time to those whose will it is. A resolution is presented when
I have decided to get up at six every morning, or to leave off smoking,
or to finish a piece of work within a specified time--here a human will
is indeed the standard, but it relates only to him whose will it is, not
at all to others.
6. What is briefly summed up in the definition of the legal norm may, if
one takes into account the explanations which have been given with this
definition, be expanded as follows:
Men will that a given procedure be generally observed within a circle
which includes themselves, and their power is so great that their will
is competent to affect the men of this circle in their procedure. When
such is the condition of things, a legal norm exists.
3.--THE STATE
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