PrepTest 111, Section 2, Question 26
Ronald Dworkin argues that judges are in danger(458 more words not shown)
It can be inferred that(15 more words not shown)
- AJudges sometimes ought(15 more words not shown)
- BDisagreements about the(7 more words not shown)
- CThe ultimate standard(12 more words not shown)
- DThe meaning of(9 more words not shown)
- EThere is no(14 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Switch sides: we're being asked about the legal positivists. My initial shorthand would be that agreement determines the meaning. More precisely, judges identify the convention behind a law, much as we identify what a word means by looking at how people use it.
What we’re looking for
That isn't a claim that whatever people agree on is morally good. The theory separates legal meaning from morality, and that distinction matters here.
Working the answers
- A
Personal moral conviction isn't the basis the positivist account supplies. The judge's role is limited to discerning consensus about the underlying convention.
- B
Disagreement can be legitimate when it concerns what the convention is. The paragraph expressly allows that; “never” denies it.
- C
The law's internal logic is Dworkin's proposed standard. Positivists locate meaning in convention. This gives us the other side's view.
- DCorrect
Jurists' interpretations give the law its conventional meaning in this account. The ending describes the positivist position as locating meaning in what people think the law means, including the interpreter's peers. This fits the consensus we predicted; it doesn't make any one judge's personal preference decisive.
- E
Different moral convictions needn't mean different interpretations of the law. Two jurists could agree about what a law means but disagree about whether it's morally good. Positivism says there is no legal fact when interpretive consensus is absent. E substitutes moral disagreement for that condition.
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