This paper deals with the issue of normativity from a legal point of view. But whereas a classical account of the normativity of law would directly ask why the law has binding force or what legal obligation is, I am approaching the issue in a rather indirect way. I am interested in the problem of the observance of law. The paper seeks to demonstrate that legal theory is obsessed with the “application” of law, to the detriment of compliance with the law. A number of arguments speak in favour of a conceptual arrangement in which compliance is an essential part. Yet, compliance should not be conceived in terms of plain obedience. A more complex configuration is needed. The paper explores possible candidates for such a configuration, all of them connecting the idea of compliance with the idea of autonomy. The observance of law, then, can’t be separated from its justification.
