JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA

FACULTY OF LAW

Subject: Legal Methods

Topic: “Comparison between Sociological
Law School and Analytical Law School”

Submitted by: Saima Anjum

BA.LLB. (H) (Reg.) Semester: III
Batch: 2018-23
Submitted to: Prof Bhawna Sharma
______________
COMPARISON BETWEEN SOCIOLOGIAL AND ANALYTICAL
JURISPRUDENCE

Jurisprudence is the study of law which explores the creation, application and its
enforcement. It is the study of theories and philosophies regarding law. Depending upon their
point of view and sources law schools have been divided as: The Analytical Law School, The
Historical Law School, The Philosophical Law School, The Comparative Law School and
The Sociological Law School.
This project focuses upon Sociological and Analytical Law School and draws comparison
between them.
According to the Sociological Law School, the purpose of law is to serve society and the
purpose of the State is to enact and promulgate laws in order to achieve the socially desirable
ends. It emphasises on the legal perspective of every issue and change that take place in
society. It focuses on balancing the welfare of state and individual. This school believes that
every problem has two different aspects- sociological and legal. Sati was abolished India, it
being illegal has a legal aspect and the sociological aspect is that today’s human rights
activists and feminists would find it difficult to believe that the practice existed.
August Comte coined the term ‘Sociology’ and defined it as a positive science of social facts.
He is known as the father of sociology and said that a society is like an organism and it could
progress when it is guided by Scientific Principles. He made great efforts to use the law as a
tool by which human society maintains itself and progresses. He said that the only right
which a man has is the right to do his duty always.
Montesquieu paved the way of the sociological school of jurisprudence and had the view that
the legal process is somehow influenced by the social condition of society. He relied on the
historical facts as a means for understanding the structure of society and explained the
importance of studying the history of society before formulating the law for that society.
Eugen Ehrlich defined society as association of men and considered it as the main source of
formulating the laws.
Herbert Spencer gave the organic theory of society. He considered law as a legal document
consisting of divine laws, injunctions of the past leaders, bills of the ruler and collective
opinion of the society.
Von Ihering criticized the individual freedom and liberty. The origin of law is to be found in
social struggle.
Roscoe Pound had a view that law should be studied in its actual working and not as it stands
in the book. He gave the most famous theory called ‘Theory of Social Engineering’.
According to him, ‘Law is social engineering which means a balance between the competing
interests in society.’ In this theory he compared lawyers with engineers. Engineers are
required to use their skills to manufacture new products, similarly social engineers are
required to build that type of structure in the society which provides maximum happiness and
minimum friction. It is the balancing of conflicting interests of individual and the state with
the help of law. He classified interests as Individual Interest, Public Interest and Social
Interest. The objective of law is to create balance between the interests of people. For
example, Article 21 of the Indian Constitution Freedom of Liberty to its subject but it also
puts restriction to prevent misuse of the right.

According to the Analytical Law School, the sovereign is a determinate superior, what the
sovereign commands is law and disobedience of such command is punishable. Every positive
law is a creation of the sovereign power and penalties are incurred for its disobedience. This
school makes law rigid and conservative as it doesn’t cater to the needs of people and the
times.
John Austin is known as the founder of the Analytical Law School. He was inspired by
Thomas Hobbes and Jeremy Bentham. Jurisprudence, to Austin, meant the formal analysis of
legal concepts. He ignored social factors and said that it is impossible to find the universal
elements in law using logics. His approach, analysis and deduction are applicable to a unitary
polity based on parliamentary sovereignty. It does not have that relevance to legal systems as
in India and the United States of America.
Jeremy Bentham divided jurisprudence into expository and censorial, expository deals with
the law as it is whereas censorial deals with the law as it ought to be. He believes that law is a
product of state and sovereign. Bentham defined law as an assemblage of sin declarative of a
violation conceived or adopted by the sovereign in a state concerning the conduct to be
observed in a certain person or class of persons who, in the case, in question are or supposed
to be subject to his power.
Holland is another jurist of the school however he differs a bit. For him, all laws are not the
command of sovereign but laws are the rules of external human action enforced by sovereign
political authority.
Salmond belonged to the Analytical Law School but differed from the other jurists. According
to him, there is nothing like universal element in law because it is the science of law of the
land and is thus conditioned by factors which prevail in a particular state. He didn’t advocate
that law is defined in terms of sovereign but law, for him, emanates from courts only. He
pointed out that the study of a law school will become barren if it ignores ethical and
historical aspects.

CONCLUSION:
Based on above information one can conclude that the Sociological Law School explains the
inter-dependence of law and society. This means that law is from society and society is from
law. Any law enacted or amended would lose its vitality if it is unacceptable to the society.
After the rape case of Asifa in Bakarwal, Jammu the rape laws are amended in India. Capital
Punishment would be awarded in rape case of 12 years or less girls.
On the other hand, the Analytical Law School is rather tyrant and strict as it advocates that
law is the command of sovereign and a person has to follow it otherwise he/she would face
punishment. Major jurists of this school disregard the influence of society in the law making
process. If a society is facing some major problems and needs its laws to be amended but the
sovereign authority doesn’t consider then the society will lose its existence and the rule will
become tyrant and unwelcoming.

REFERENCES:
 http://www.shareyouressays.com
 http://www.legalbites.in