Roughly speaking, a rule of law originates from a demand that certain social interests shall be appeased, which in turn gives rise to expectations that there actually exists a fundamental norm whose realization will gratify the needs of society.237 Once the rule has entered into effect, the first social interest is supplemented by an additional social interest, namely the interest that the rule in question, under the tacit threat of coercive measures, shall be followed and obeyed alike by private citizens and the organs of state.238 In fact, it is under the pressure of these social interests and other various factors that the rules of law on the whole are followed.239Taken together these factors help refute the will-theory insofar as they cannot be described as expressions of a homogeneous, unitary will of state, society, or people, since among these factors we find the:“… popular feeling of justice, class-interests, the general inclination to adapt oneself to circumstances, fear of anarchy, lack of organization among the discontented part of the people, and by no means least the inherited custom of observing what is called the law of the land.”240 Hence, it is unwarranp a r t v, c h a p t e r 3 366 3. 8 [5] pos i t ivi sm:“The explanation of legal propositions from the consciousness of law is false. For this consciousness is itself controlled by the interest in society or the interests in a class, which are ultimately determinative for it.”236 236 Hägerström, “Hägerström.”; “The Philosophy of Axel Hägerström.” 237 Hägerström, “Förhållandet mellan staten och rätten (1924).” 238 Cf. ibid., pp. 235-239 and 250-253. 239 Hägerström,“Är gällande rätt?,” p. 80;“Is Positive Law?,” p. 39;“Förhållandet mellan staten och rätten (1924),” pp. 250-253;“En straffrättslig principundersökning,”Svensk Juristtidning (SvJT) 24 (1939): p. 210; “On Fundamental Problems of Law,” in Inquiries into the Nature of Law and Morals:Axel Hägerström, p. 349. 240 Hägerström, “Är gällande rätt?,” p. 80; “Is Positive Law?,” p. 39. Here Hägerström refers to Klein, F., Die psychischen Quellen des Rechtsgehorsams und der Rechtsgeltung, 1912, pp. 24 et seq. Swedish:“… rättsmedvetandet, klassintressena, den allmänna benägenheten att foga sig efter förhållandena, fruktan för anarki, brist på organisation hos den missnöjda delen av befolkningen och icke minst den nedärvda vanan att taga hänsyn till vad man kallar gällande rätt etc.”
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