MULTIPLE PRINCIPLES AND THE OBLIGATION TO OBEY THE LAW

Abstract

[George Klosko’s multiple principle theory of political obligation is a re- cent formulation for the existence of a general obligation to obey the law. In the paper, I argue that the generality requirement of the obligation to obey the law gives rise to normative and factual problems of, respectively, motivation and comprehensiveness. I aim to show that whereas the multi- ple principle theory may solve the factual problem of the generality re- quirement, it does not solve its normative problem which I characterise as a first-personal implication of the question, ‘why should I obey the law?’]