Nature of Law

Nature of Law 

The word ‘jurisprudence’ is made from the Latin word ‘jurisprudence’ – the knowledge of law. “Juris” in Latin signifies ‘legal’, and “prudentia” means ‘skill’ or ‘knowledge’. The word ‘jurisprudence’ has meant many different things at different times. It is the name given to a certain type of investigation into law, an investigation of an abstract, general and theoretical nature which seeks to lay bare the essential principles of law and legal systems. 

In jurisprudence we are not concerned to derive rules from authority and apply them to problems; we are concerned rather to reflect on the nature of legal rules, on the underlying meaning of legal concepts and on the essential features of legal systems. In this, jurisprudence comprises philosophy of law, and is a second order subject whose object is not to discover new rules but to reflect on the rules already known. The relation of jurisprudence to law depends not upon what law is treated but how law is treated. 

But whether discussing the nature of law or the working of authority or the analysis of legal concepts, jurisprudence should not confine itself to logic. Legal theory is concerned with law as it exists and functions in society; and the way in which law is created and enforced, the influence of social opinion and law on each other are all points where jurisprudence meets other disciplines such as sociology, psychology and so forth. 

Thus, the contents of Jurisprudence include: Sources of law. Legal concepts and Legal theories. ‘Systematic jurisprudence deals with the contents of an actual legal system as existing at any time, whether past or present. It is also known as ‘expository jurisprudence’. 

Jurisprudence is variously defined by different authors/ jurists: 

Ulpian: “Jurisprudence is the observation of things – human and divine, the knowledge of the just and unjust”. 

Bentham: Jurisprudence is an analysis of formal structure of law and its concepts. 

Stone: It is nothing but the ‘lawyers extroversion’. It is the lawyers’ examination of precepts, ideals, techniques of law in the light of observations derived from present knowledge in disciplines other than law. 

Austin: He determined the “province of jurisprudence”. The science of jurisprudence is concerned with positive law, with ‘laws strictly so called’. It has nothing to do with the goodness or badness of law. He further divided the subject into ‘general’ and ‘particular’ jurisprudence. General jurisprudence includes such subjects as are

common to all systems while particular jurisprudence is confined only to the study of any actual system of law or of any portion of it. 

Holland-. Jurisprudence is the formal science of positive law. He criticised the division of the subject into general and particular. He pointed out that science deals with the relations of mankind which are regarded as having legal consequences, but not with the rules which create those relations. 

Kelsen: Jurisprudence is the study of systematic arrangement of general principles of law 

Salmond: Jurisprudence is the “science of law”. It is one of the integral social sciences so the distinction between general and particular jurisprudence is not proper. He, however, differentiated ‘Generics Jurisprudence (which includes the entire body of legal doctrines) from ‘Specific Jurisprudence (which means only a particular department of legal doctrines). 

Alien-. Jurisprudence is ‘the scientific synthesis of the essential principles of law’. The definition may seem to be an abstract one but it gives a true view of the nature of the subject. 

One of the tasks of jurisprudence is to construct and elucidate organising concepts serving to render the complexities of law more manageable and more rational; and in this way theory can help to improve practice. Following are some of the uses of the study of 

jurisprudence: (i) It gives an understanding of the nature of law. It helps in the study of the actual rules of law and in tracing out principles underlying therein, (ii) It helps in making a scientific development of law.