Meaning of Law

The term “law” denotes various kinds of principle and rules. Law is a platform which
mandates human conduct or behaviors. Law can also be termed as Statutes, Order, Rules,
Acts from a legislature point of view. Law can also mean Court’s judgement, Decrees, Court
Orders, Injunctions etc. Hence law in a broader term covers all the rules, principle, steps,
orders etc. which governs the human behaviors or conduct and contributes in providing
justice.

The term law has been derived from a Latin term “Legam” which means the body of rules.
As per the Hindu religion or jurisprudence, law implies ‘Dharma’, in Islamic religion it is
“Hukum’, in Romans it is “Jus’ and in France it is “Droit”, and in Germany it is “Richt”.
Hence the law has different meaning in different places/societies at different times as it is
dynamic and continues to expand.

For example:- While adultery is an offence in India under Section 497, Indian Penal Code
(PC), it is not the case in United States of America. Further the law is different from religion
to religion in case of personal law i.e. a Muslim man can have 4 wives at a time, but a Hindu
can only have one wife. If a married Hindu marries before divorcing his first wife, he is
declared guilty of the bigamy offence under section 494 of IPC.

Various jurist attempted to define law and some of the definitions are mentioned below.

a. Salmond:

b . According to
Salmond, “the law may
be defined as body of
c. principles, recognised
and applied by the State
in the administration
d. of justice”.
e . According to
Salmond, “the law may
be defined as body of
f. principles, recognised
and applied by the State
in the administration
g. of justice”.
h . According to
Salmond, “the law may
be defined as body of
 i. principles, recognised
and applied by the State
in the administration
j. of justice”.
According to Salmond, “the law may be defined as body of principles, recognized and
applied by the State in the administration justice”1.

b. Gray

According to Gray “the law of the state or of any organized body of men is composed
of the rules which the courts, that is the judicial organ of the body laws down for the
determination of legal rights and duties”2.

c. Austin
Austin defines law as a command of sovereign backed by sanction. According to him
there are three elements of law viz. a)command, (b) duty and (c) sanction. So as per
Austin, every law has a command and it is our duty to obey it and if not obeyed there
shall be a sanction. 3
d. H.L.A. Hart:

According to Hart, law is a system of rules- the primary and secondary rules. The
primary rules are duty imposing while the secondary rules as power conferring.4

e. Roscoe Pound:

According to Pound , law is a social institution to satisfy social wants. He says that
law is a social engineering, which means that law is an instrument of balance
between the competing and conflicting interest.5

1
John William Salmond (1907). ‘Jurisprudence, Or, The Theory of the Law’
2
J Gray, ‘The Nature and Sources of the law’ vii-viii (1st ed. 1909)
3
J. Austin, ‘The Province of Jurisprudence Determined etc’. (1954 ed.)
4
H.L.A. Hart , ‘The Concept of Law’ (1961)
5
Gochhayat, Sai Abhipsa, 'Social Engineering by Roscoe Pound': Issues in Legal and Political Philosophy
(November 15, 2010).
 f. Holmes J:
According to Homes J, the prophesies of what the courts will do, in fact and nothing
more pretentions, are what I mean by law.6

Hence law does not have any standard definition or meaning and can be interpreted as be
satisfaction considering it is dynamic of its inherent element.

6
‘The Path of the Law.’ Harvard Law Review, vol. 10, no. 8, 1897