#21 - Global Reference, Main Point

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (B).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[tkt25!]

Hi there!

I chose D and actually eliminated B although originally I was attracted to choose that answer but what caught me off guard was that it said "but should be consistent with the reasoning that underlies the law" and then I was like hmm reasoning that underlies the law? That doesn't sound right! I also didn't love how in D it used the phrasing "borrowing equally" but I could not figure it out. I also read this passage over twice! Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Adam Tyson]

Thanks for the question, tkt25! The passage tells us that Dworkin dislikes both of the extreme theories, Natural Law on the one hand and Legal Positivism on the other. There's no indication that Dworkin borrows from either theory, although his middle ground does appear to have some things in common with each of them. More importantly, the author isn't trying to convince us that Dworkin borrowed from those theories, but only that his theory represents a middle ground between those extremes. I think you'll find all the support you need for answer B in this portion of the third paragraph:

Dworkin stresses the fact that there is an internal logic to a society’s laws and the general principles they typically embody. An interpretation that conforms to these principles may be correct even if it is not supported by
a consensus. Since these general principles may involve such moral concepts as justice and fairness, judges may be called upon to consult their own moral intuitions in arriving at an interpretation. But this is not to say that judges are free to impose their own morality at will, without regard to the internal logic of the laws.