Corrado Roversi (Bologna) – “In Defence of Constitutive Rules” (Hart Seminar Series, Surrey)

Corrado is developing an argument in defence of constitutive rules and hopes to use the seminar as a ‘brainstorm and banter’ session in pursuit of that development. Hence there will not be a pre-circulated paper.

The notion of constitutive rules is used extensively by Searle, Rawls (who called them ‘practice rules’), and other theorists of institutions, usually in contrast with regulative rules. As one SCLP fellow has explained the distinction, ‘Constitutive rules specify the contours of an activity or institution, bringing it into existence and differentiating it from other areas of human endeavor. Regulative rules … determine how the activity or institution is to operate.’ While many of these theorists will note that rules can perform both functions at once, Raz influentially attacked the distinction itself in Practical Reasons and Norms (pp 108-11 of the 1975 edition).