Authority builds from accumulated past compliance without requiring ongoing justification

Evidence

It takes a long process of what Mr. Justice Miller used to call judicial inclusion and exclusion to justify you in being certain that you have hold of something so general, so universal, so capable of dealing with questions of that type that you can say here is an authoritative starting point for legal reasoning in all analogous cases. — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 134 (#expands, via linked claim)

It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV. It is still more revolting if the grounds upon which it was laid down have vanished long since, and the rule simply persists from blind imitation of the past. — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 1067 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

A rule can never be binding just because some person with physical power wants it to be so. He must have authority to issue the rule or it is no rule, and such authority can only come from another rule which is already binding on those to whom he speaks. That is the difference between a valid law and the orders of a gunman. — Ronald M. Dworkin, The Model of Rules, 48 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Authority rests on learned competence within a division of labor, not grace — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 217; Authority functions as a representation of unexplored complexity; Legitimacy is better understood as contingency control than as justification or consent. (+18 more)

Related

• Legal validity derives from normative authority, not from physical power alone. (similarity 0.83)
• A legal principle emerges from a long line of decisions. (similarity 0.80)
• A rule differs from an order, among other ways, by being normative, by setting a standard of behavior that has a call on its subject beyond the threat that may enforce it. A rule can never be… (similarity 0.79)
• Rule by decree severs justification from principle, making power itself the source of law. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• A legal principle emerges from a long line of decisions. #expands (0.80) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 134
• Legal rules resting only on past authority deserve condemnation when their rationale has lapsed #qualifies (0.75) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 1067
• Legal validity derives from normative authority, not from physical power alone. #corroborates (0.60) — Ronald M. Dworkin, The Model of Rules, 48
• Normative obligation differs fundamentally from being threatened into compliance. #corroborates (0.55) — Ronald M. Dworkin, The Model of Rules, 47
• Legal obligation differs from mere coercion by threat of force #corroborates (0.55) — Ronald M. Dworkin, The Model of Rules, 40
• Authority, reputation, and leadership are generalized motives for accepting influence #expands (0.50)