Abstract

Moral norms usually have the form of statements of obligation containing the words, ‚should’, ‚ought to’, ‚It is required … ‚, etc.; the form proper to a legal norm is the declarative sentence. In both these forms norms with good sense be preceded by the sing of assertion, ‚It is true that … ‚ and construed as a logically true statement affirming the existence of a duty or state of affairs ordained by a legislative institution. Hence, the contrary opinion denying norms to be statements in the logical sense and attributing to them the function of command or recommendation, is incorrect: for, for a norm to be realized an additional act of decision motivated by a norm of either kind, is required. That decision is expressed by an imperative sentence, addressed to the person due to realize the norm. Occasionally imperative sentences replace a norm – as, eg., in the Decalogue; in such cases, they should be regarded as elliptic expressions with an implicit motivating norm understood.