POSITIVISM

A perspective on Law as defined by John Austin.
(Quotes are from “Shield of Achilles” by Phillip Bobbitt, unless otherwise noted).

Positivism is the idea that Natural Law is irrelevant. A sovereign could decide what is Law without regard to its origin. If a sovereign “denied authority to a ‘natural’ law, it ceased to have any legal effect.”
Positivism also redefines the concept of a “just war.” “Justice [is] a matter of morality, not of Law; therefore, war is lawful when the sovereign deems it so.

In the matter of the War in Afghanistan, the majority of the sovereign citizens of the United States of America deemed it to be a “just war” because the persons ultimately responsible for the attacks against them on 11 September 2001 were trained and harbored in that State. There was a moral justification—self-defense and retribution.

In the matter of the War in Iraq, the majority of the sovereign citizens of the United States of America were unsure as to pre-emptive war being a “just war”. For their own purposes, the State of the United States of America, as elected by the sovereign citizens, thereby creating a sovereign state, in the person of President George W. Bush, used Positivism, that is, it was decided that war with Iraq was lawful just because the sovereign State said so. There was no moral justification of self-defense and retribution for crimes committed against a sovereign State. Instead, there was a legal justification; it is possible that in the future the State of Iraq will do something somewhere sometime against someone somewhere. This was the premise of the movie “Minority Report”, in which the State prosecutes people before they commit crimes, thereby preventing crimes. Under this view of Positivism, that the powers that be decide what is Law and what is Out Law, Hitler could justify the murder of millions of innocent people, without due process or with due process, whichever he deemed best fit the circumstances of the moment. Under this view of Positivism, no one is safe in his life, liberty, or property. What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine because you voted me into office, I believe we call this “eminent domain” at its worst.

I think we better start taking the Source of Law in this Nation seriously, whether as Thomas Jefferson say, “the Law of Nature or of Nature’s God”, as embodied in the Constitution or we will be subjected to the whims of an ever-growing tyrannical government with tentacles in every corner of our private lives under the guise of security and prevention. Welcome to the “Brave New World” of “1984” where War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength. But that’s okay “Big Brother Is Watching” out for you.