actual maintenance of the rules of coercion with reference, not to the legal subjects’ positive attitude towards these rules, but to the powers of the anthropomorphic legal order itself, which is an explanation that Hägerström holds to be an utter absurdity.399 Under what circumstances is punishment legitimate and just? Quite naturally the answer is:Whenever the perpetrator’s action is such that it deserves specific punishment.The theoretical substratum of this explanation is that punishment and action are inherently interconnected; that the punishment constitutes an intrinsic part of the action itself, and vice versa.400 According to Hägerström, the bond between action and punishment is of moral nature and origin, which is necessary in order to maintain and strengthen the connection between the common sense of justice and the action and the subsequent punishment.401 If punishment only is based upon utilitarian principles then the bond between the act and the punishment would not be sufficiently firm to be sustained, which in turn would diminish the legitimacy of the punishment. It is thus obvious that this bond is of a moral nature, especially since punishment is called for on account of the very nature of the act itself, even if positive penal law remains silent. p a r t v i , c h a p t e r 6 500 6 . 5. 2 i llegal i ty - a corollary to the metaphys ical characte ri st ics of the b inding powe r s of the norm (the impe rat ive-theory) “The rights and duties laid down in this law [i.e. the law of justice] do not acquire their reality, as do those laid down in human law, through the maintenance of the legal order; on the contrary,‘right’ exists immediately as a subsistent inner power, independently of the conditions of external power, just as ‘obligation’ is immediately real as an inner bond and therefore independent of the actual maintenance of the legal 399 Hägerström, “Principundersökning,” p. 220; “Fundamental Problems,” pp. 360-361. 400 Hägerström, “Principundersökning,” p. 220; “Fundamental Problems,” p. 361. 401 Cf. Hägerström, “Principundersökning,” p. 220; “Fundamental Problems,” pp. 360361.
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