Legal Concepts: An Inferential Approach

Abstract

The inferential and eliminative analysis of legal concepts proposed by Alf Ross will be connected to the views of theoretical concepts in science advanced by Frank Ramsey and Rudolf Carnap. Consequently, the mere comprehension of a legal concept will be distinguished from the application of the concept to a particular legal system, since application presupposes a doctrinal commitment, namely, the belief that the inferences constituting the concept hold in that system.