Paradox of Self-Amendment by Peter Suber 3. Even if this proposition is difficult to find in Hart, it is found in another acceptance theorist. See Conrad Johnson, "The Rule of Law and the Closure of a Legal System," American Journal of Jurisprudence, 18 (1972) 38-56 at p. 39. 4. Hart also says, against this view, that there is no rule of recognition in international law (230-31), even though there is clearly an official practice of identifying what is to count as international law. 5. It is for reasons of this kind that Joseph Raz accepts the self-justification of some legal rules, especially of constitutions made in territories where no prior constitutions exist to authorize them. See his The Concept of a Legal System: An Introduction to the Theory of Legal System, Oxford University Press, 1980, at pp. 138f. 6. Ronald Dworkin, "The Forum of Principle," New York University Law Review, 56 (1981) 469-518 at p. 496. 7. Paul Brest, "The Misconceived Quest for the Original Understanding," Boston University Law Review, 60 (1980) 204 at p. 225. 8. For the view that the constitution did not become established until the 13th state (Rhode Island) ratified, Article VII notwithstanding, see Appendix 1.D and T.R. Powell, "Changing Constitutional Phases," Boston University Law Review, 19 (1939) 509-32. Powell's argument is based on the fact that amendment under the AC of the Articles of Confederation required unanimous concurrence of the states. The AC of the Articles of Confederation was the highest rule of change in effect at the time; to disregard it was to make revolution. The Supreme Court was never asked to rule on this question directly, but in ruling on when the contracts clause became effective it ruled that the ninth state (New Hampshire) sufficed to ratify the constitution, making the constitution effective on the first Wednesday of March, 1789. Owings v. Sneed, 18 U.S. 420 (1820). It ruled, incidentally, that there was no overlap between the governments of the Articles of Confederation and the government of the new constitution. It ignored both the question of the self-justification of the new Article VII, and the question of the violated AC of the Articles of Confederation. See Appendix 1.D. 9. But see Socrates's argument in the Crito that, by not leaving Athens and benefitting from it, he is bound to obey its laws. Similarly, the argument is sometimes made that one consents to the jurisdiction of a state's courts by benefitting from state services. 10. A persuasive argument that self-justification is unnecessary in establishing a new legal order —the irreflexive view of revolution— is made by J.M. Eekelaar, "Principles of Revolutionary Legality," in A.W.B. Simpson (ed.), Oxford Essays in Jurisprudence, Second Series, Oxford University Press, 1973, pp. 22-43. Eekelaar argues that the sort of principles which Ronald Dworkin distinguished from Hartian rules may survive a revolution and justify a court in declaring that a new regime is the lawful sovereign or that the new leader is the lawful executive. He believes that such court findings in Pakistan (1959), Uganda (1966), and Rhodesia (1968) need not be based on judicial fear or the alleged tautology that by hearing the cases at all the courts must have been reconstituted under a new legal order which is therefore already legal. At p. 24 he argues that there can be legal reasons for accepting a rule of recognition. 40