China Social Science Review

No.1, 2023

A Review of the Conceptual Analysis Method of Legal Positivism

(Abstract)

Qian Yidong

Legal positivism dominates the contemporary Anglo-American philosophy of law. It positions itself as descriptive and general conceptual analysis that is chiefly aimed at clarifying the nature of law. By reviewing the three meta-theoretical characteristics of conceptual analysis, descriptive nature and general nature, we find that in the study of legal philosophy, descriptive conceptual analysis is indeed feasible and has important philosophical value. Once its theoretical premise and interpretive scope have been clarified, such research can coexist with Dworkin’s normative conceptual analysis. However, this kind of research has contextual limits, and its general claims are exaggerated.