A Solution to the Paradox of the Just Law

Abstract

According to the paradox of the just law, just laws do not create moral duties, evenunder the assumption that the law generally creates duties. Raz argues that this paradox arisesin relation to laws which are both just and to which an independent moral obligation is attached,but his treatment of the issue is brief. In this paper, I offer a reconstruction of Raz’sargument. I argue that the argument is sound under what I term the “compliance conception”of the duty to obey just laws but fails under the “conformity conception” of that duty. I thenpresent several reasons supporting the conformity conception. By distinguishing between thesetwo conceptions and arguing that the conformity conception is correct, I solve the paradox ofthe just law.