Module I
Concept of Law
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Concept of Law : What is Law?
A law student is at the outset faced with the question
"what is law?'.
This is a complex question and has no simple answer.
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Is Law a system, a set of rules or a part of culture?
What is Law made of?
Where do you find Law?
How is the Law you study different from the Law of
Gravity?
Can there be a society without Law?
What makes Law a system?
Can you say that an individual’s perspective influences
notions of Law.
Can we associate Law with Morality?
Can we detach law and order?
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According to Webster's Dictionary, law
is an interesting list of things:
Rule of conduct recognized by custom or by formal enactment
which a community considers it binding upon itself.
A system or body of such rules.
Condition of the society when such rules are observed to
establish rule of law.
Body of rules relating to specified subjects e.g, Criminal Law,
Property Law, etc.
Statute and common law as against equity.
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Cont.
Rules of conduct and procedure.
In Science and philosophy a statement of the manner or order in
which a defined group of natural phenomena occur certain conditions
-natural law.
Rules or formula according to which certain function or operation are
performed.
Statement of principles.
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Cont.
An enactment of legislature.
Remedial justice administered by courts .
Branch of knowledge concerned with
jurisprudence.
Vocation of an attorney or solicitor.
Rules of conduct having divine origin.
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Black's Law Dictionary
LAW That which is laid down, ordained, or established .
A rule or method according to which phenomena or
actions co-exist or follow each other. Law, in its generic
sense, is a body of rules of action or conduct prescribed by
controlling authority, and having binding legal force.
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Law is all of above and much more. It is a large body of
rules and regulations based mainly on general principles
of justice, fair play and convenience.
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John Austin (English jurist born 1790)
“Law is a command of sovereign backed by sanction”
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Professor Hart
(Oxford Professor of jurisprudence, born 1907)
Hart defined law as a system of rules, a union of primary
and secondary rules,
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Definition of law - Marxist theory
Marxist theories of law generally define law as a tool of
oppression used by capitalists to control the proletariat.
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St Thomas Aquinas (Italian philosopher
born 1224)
"Nothing else than an ordinance of reason for the common
good, made by him who has care of the community, and
promulgated"
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Definition of law - Legal Realism
Oliver Wendell Holmes (American judge and jurist born
1841)
"The prophecies of what the courts will do ... are what I
mean by the law,"
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Definition of law - Thomas Hobbes
(English philosopher born 1588)
Hobbes said of the role and function of law in his polemic
work ‘Leviathan’ (1651)
"Law is the formal glue that holds fundamentally
disorganised societies together."
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Definition of law - Glanville Williams
“Learning the law”
"Law is the cement of society and also an essential
medium of change. Knowledge of law increases one’s
understanding of public affairs. Its study promotes
accuracy of expression, facility in argument and skill in
interpreting the written word, as well as some
understanding of social values".
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There is no single answer as to what is law and where it
can be located. So every time one looks for law in a
particular context.
Functionally law works as a system. It is a set of rules
which regulate human conduct in a society and as such
from a citizen's point of view law must be obeyed.
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Conclusion…
Normative
Coercive/imperative
Ever evolving
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