 Most people who believe that they have an obligation to obey the law probably think that this putative obligation is grounded in their consent. Political philosophers are less inclined to think this way, however, in light of the withering criticism to which Hume and more recent writers – notably Simmons (1979, chaps. 3 and 4) – have subjected consent theory. The critics’ claim is not that consent cannot be a source of obligations, for they typically believe that it can. Their claim, instead, is that too few people have either expressly or tacitly given the kind of actual consent that can ground a general obligation to obey the law, and hypothetical consent cannot supply the defect, for reasons already noted.