Jerome Hall (b.1901) is deeply concerned with the question of whether rationality and morality are “of the essence” in law, and his answer to the question is affirmative. He advocates the adoption of a restrictive definition of positive law which would limit the term to “actual ethical power norms” and exclude “sheer power norms.” He is convinced that there may be norms enacted by the state which lack the quality of law because they are entirely devoid of ethical content. In an attempt to lay the foundations for a democratic natural law, Hall proposes that the democratic ideal should be included in the essence of our positive law. “Especially, we include therein the ‘consent of the governed’ and all that implies in that context of the democratic process. That is the fundamental correction which must be made in the traditional Natural Law theories of positive law.”

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