The rule of recognition occupies a central position in Hart's legal positivism because

In H.L.A. Hart's The Concept of Law, the rule of recognition is the ultimate secondary rule that remedies the defect of uncertainty by specifying the authoritative criteria of legal validity—thereby telling us what the basic source of legal authority is in a country (for example, enactments of the legislature or provisions of the Constitution). Social rules can exist without a rule of recognition (such as primary rules in a pre-legal society or rules of etiquette), so it is incorrect to state that rules are only rules if recognised by a rule of recognition, and legal validity under Hart's theory depends on official acceptance of the rule of recognition rather than unanimous recognition by every individual citizen.