Larry Alexander (University of San Diego School of Law) has posted What are Principles, and Do They Exist? on SSRN> Here is the abstract:
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In this paper I distinguish principles from rules and standards and ask if there are norms that fit this description. I conclude that these may be moral principles but that there are no legal principles. Accounts of law such as Dworkin’s and Alexy’s, in which legal principles play a role, are thus vitiated.
Highly recommended.