In each political community, he thought, one will find a sovereign-a person or a determinate group whom the rest obey habitually, but who is not in the habit of obeying anyone else. The legal rules of a community are the general commands its sovereign has deployed. Austin's definition of legal obligation followed from this definition of law. One has a legal obligation, he thought, if one is among the addressees of some general order of the sovereign, and is in danger of suffering a sanction unless he obeys that order.

DEFINE: Explains Austin's command theory of law: law defined as sovereign commands with sanctions, and obligation as the threat of punishment. XREF: Connects to Hart's critique of Austin's command model in The Concept of Law, which points out that not all law takes the form of sovereign commands. Builds on: "The coercion powering law lacks a satisfactory justificatory account"

Ronald Dworkin, Ronald Dworkin - The Model …, loc. 32