Joseph Raz

Joseph Raz (; born 21 March 1939) is a legal, moral and political philosopher.
He is one of the most

prominent living advocates of legal positivism. He has spent most of his career as professor of
philosophy of law and a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, and simultaneously as professor of law at
Columbia University Law School. Several of Raz's students have become important legal and moral
philosophers.
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Mandate Palestine in 1939, Joseph Raz graduated in 1963 from the Hebrew University,
Jerusalem, Israel with a Magister Juris (Master of Jurisprudence), summa cum laude. Later, with funds
provided by the Hebrew University, Raz pursued a Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil) at Oxford University
under the supervision of H. L. A. Hart. This was by no means coincidental; Raz had met Hart earlier at
a conference in Israel. Hart says that at this meeting, Raz pointed out a flaw in his reasoning that had
previously eluded him. Hart encouraged him to go to Oxford for further study.
Raz studied at Balliol College, Oxford and was awarded the Ph.D. in 1967. Raz then returned to Israel
to teach at the Hebrew University as a Lecturer in the Faculty of Law and Department of Philosophy. In
1971, he was tenured and promoted to Senior lecturer. In 1972, he was appointed as a Fellow and
Tutor in Law at Balliol College (Oxford University). Raz's presence there has made it a magnet for legal
scholars. In 1993, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Catholic University of Brussels.
Raz is acknowledged by his contemporaries as being one of the most important living legal
philosophers. His work has also been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada in such cases as Imperial
Tobacco v. British Columbia, R. v. Demers, and Sauv�v. Canada .
At present, Joseph Raz is a Professor of Philosophy of Law and a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford
University as well as a visiting Professor at Columbia Law School. He has held various visiting
appointments at different universities, and has also served on a number of editorial boards for the
publication of journals and books. He has authored and edited nine books to date, namely The Concept
of a Legal System (1970), Practical Reason and Norms (1975), The Authority of Law (1979), The
Morality of Freedom (1986), Authority (1990), Ethics in the Public Domain (1994), Engaging
Reason (1999), Value, Respect and Attachment (2001), and The Practice of Value (2003).
His first book, The Concept of a Legal System, was based on his doctoral thesis. A later book, The
Morality of Freedom won the W.J.M Mackenzie Book Prize from the Political Studies Association of the
United Kingdom. This prize is awarded to the best book in political science each calendar year. The
Morality of Freedom also won the Elaine and David Spitz Book Prize from the conference for the Study
of Political Thought, New York. The prize is awarded annually for the best book in liberal and/or
democratic theory that was published two years earlier, meaning that a book published in 2004 will be
awarded a prized in 2006.
The key ideas engaged in his books are norms, authority, and the theory of legal positivism. His theory
of norms refers roughly to rules that serve as a guide for human behaviour. It also includes the
system(s) that those norms exist in, such as a legal system. The second aspect refers to questions on
the authority that law has over people under a particular legal system, and the authority that society
in general should acknowledge as due to the law. Such questions are important for the law is in every
corner of society, affecting the daily lives of individuals whether they like it or not. As Raz uses the
term, 'legal positivism' refers to the view that there is no necessary conceptual relationship between
law and morality; a law does not cease to be a law by being unjust or immoral. The term is sometimes
used to describe the view that laws either can or even should not be grounded in morality; Raz does
not defend that view.
Raz was awarded an Honorary Degree from King's College London in January 2009 and a Vice-Presidency
Award was presented to him by the Law Society (University College Dublin) in February 2009.
WORKS
A pupil of H. L. A. Hart, Raz has been important in continuing Hart's arguments of legal positivism since
Hart's death. This included editing a second edition of Hart's The Concept of Law, with an additional
section including Hart's responses to other philosophers' criticisms of his work. His most recent work
deals less with legal theory and more with political philosophy and practical reasoning. In political
philosophy Raz is a proponent of a Perfectionist Liberalism. In moral theory Raz defends value
pluralism and the idea that various values are incommensurable.

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Joseph Raz (; born 21 March 1939) is a legal, moral and political philosopher.

He is one of the most

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