‘You gotta roll/rule with it’: Oasis and the concept of law

Abstract

This article analyses HLA Hart's legal positivist theory through the life and music of the English band Oasis. It is argued that bringing Hart and Oasis into co-orbit reveals a fundamental ambiguity and anxiety within Hart's jurisprudential performance. It is argued that Oasis’ self-confidence compares to Hart's certainty of a distinction between law and morality and Oasis’ populism echoes Hart's claim of law as dependent on communal assent. However, an examination of Oasis also makes visible an essential critique of the certain and voluntary nature of Hart's system. Oasis’ performances, on and offstage, highlight the undisclosed essentiality of violence within The Concept of Law that betrays ambiguity and anxiety regarding core elements of Hart's jurisprudential performance; the role of officials and the clarity of rules.