The rules that stipulate how Congress is composed, and how it enacts legislation, are examples of secondary rules. Rules about forming contracts and executing wills are also secondary rules because they stipulate how very particular rules governing particular legal obligations (i.e., the terms of a contract or the provisions of a will) come into existence and are changed.

Evidence

Under rules of the one type, which may well be considered the basic or primary type, human beings are required to do or abstain from certain actions, whether they wish to or not. Rules of the other type are in a sense parasitic upon or secondary to the first; for they provide that human beings may by doing or saying certain things introduce new rules of the primary type, extinguish or modify old ones, or in various ways determine their incidence or control their operations. Rules of the first type impose duties; rules of the second type confer powers, public or private. — HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law…, 288 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

  • XREF: connects to: The rules that stipulate how Congress is composed, and how it enacts legislation, are examples of secondary rules.; Primary rules impose duties while secondary rules confer public or private powers — HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law…, 288; Law emerges when a secondary rule separates legal rules from social rules — Ronald M. Dworkin, The Model of Rules, 59 (+2 more)

Broader Connections