The Moral Impact Theory , the Dependence View , and Natural Law

The central idea of the Moral Impact Theory is that legal obligations are those genuine obligations that obtain in virtue of the actions of legal institutions. (If we formulate this idea in terms of moral obligations, the paradigm of genuine obligations, we get the view that legal obligations are those moral obligations that obtain in virtue of the actions of legal institutions.) What philosophical question does the Moral Impact Theory seek to answer? Facts about the content of the law – for example, the fact that, under California law, contracts for the sale of land are not valid unless committed to writing – are not among the most basic facts of the universe. Rather, such legal content facts – legal facts, for short – obtain in virtue of other, more basic facts. A core question in philosophy of law is how to explain, at the most fundamental level, the obtaining of legal facts in terms of more basic facts. The Moral Impact Theory is an answer to this question.