Social Norms and the Internal Point of View

This chapter revisits and builds upon H. L. A. Hart’s account of the evolution of law from a society governed solely by primary rules—basic, informal norms. While Hart explains the development of secondary rules to address deficiencies in primary rules, he leaves unexplored how primary rules themselves initially emerged, and provides limited elaboration on why individuals would adopt the ‘internal point of view’ toward them. Delivered as the Hart Memorial Lecture in 2018, the chapter addresses both issues simultaneously. It offers a refined narrative of the emergence of primary rules, proposing that these rules arose organically through repeated social practices that proved beneficial. Over time, these regularities were not only followed but came to be seen as binding, with individuals internalising them and regarding them as personally obligatory. The chapter thus enriches Hart’s original theory by showing how early normative structures gained moral traction and social authority, laying the groundwork for the development of legal systems.