Editing Legal positivism (section)

== Etymology and semantics ==

The term ''positivism'' in ''legal positivism'' is connected to the sense of the verb ''to posit'' rather than the sense of ''positive'' (as opposed to ''negative''). In this sense, the term ''positivism'' is derived from Latin {{lang|la|positus}}, the past participle of {{lang|la|ponere}}, meaning "to place" or "to put".{{citation needed|reason=True, but needs a citation, and SEP doesn't have it.|date=June 2024}} Legal positivism holds that laws are rules established (that is, "posited") by human beings, and that this act of positing the law makes it authoritative and binding.<ref name="Stanford Green">{{cite web|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2009/entries/legal-positivism/ |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |last=Green |first=Leslie |title=Legal Positivism |date=2009 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, [[Stanford University]] |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |edition=Fall 2009}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=June 2024}}