Question

Decide the incorrect statement with respect to Hart-Fuller debate on the Nazi Grudger case:

• A. Hart argued from a positivist approach that moral issues should not be considered within a legal system and that a law should not be invalidated on moral judgment. The wives could not be punished on the ground that it was not law but later could be punished on the ground that it was retrospective legislation.
• B. Fuller explained that the wives were correctly sentenced because at the time there was no Nazi law as it was devoid of morality and thus had no legitimacy.
• C. Fuller contended that the women in the case would become criminally liable not because what they did was illegal but because a later statute rendering it illegal by repealing the Nazi law and assuming retrospective effect.
• D. Hart admits that it could be wrong to punish a person when what they did was then permitted by statute because of the Latin principle of Nulla Poena Sine Lege which means there can be no punishment without law.

Answer 1

Answer: (C)

Fuller contended that the women in the case would become criminally liable not because what they did was illegal but because a later statute rendering it illegal by repealing the Nazi law and assuming retrospective effect.

Answer 2

Fuller argued that the Nazi law was invalid due to its immorality. However, it was not correct to say that the wives were sentenced because there was no Nazi law at the time; the law was effective at the time they were prosecuted.