What is Jurisprudence?

Dr. Manoranjan Kumar

Assistant Professor
Department of Law
Chanakya National Law University, Patna
Nyaya Nagar, Mithapur, Patna
Mob.: +91 9709475958
Email: manoranjan.cnlu@gmail.com
manoranjankumar@cnlu.ac.in
 What is Jurisprudence?
• “Jurisprudence”- Used in divergent senses.
• Best Usage
• Use peculiar to England, U.S. etc.
• Use peculiar to France and some extent U.S.
• Use as a synonym of Law
 What is Jurisprudence?
• According to Roscoe Pound “jurisprudence in its widest sense is the
science of law.”
• Difficulties
• Science?
• Law?
• Body of critically controlled and ordered knowledge about something
significant.
 Many Definitions
• Austin
• Holland
• C.K. Allen
• Keeton
• Gray
• Stone
• Paton
 Paton’s Observation
• However it may be defined, it is a study relating to law.
• Although the term law may seem to the uninitiated a simple one,
analysis reveals that there are many uses of this word.
• One of the first tasks of jurisprudence is to throw light on the use of
the word law.
 Law: Different Usages
• Oldest and the longest use.
• Used to mean Ordre juridique
• Used in the Realists’ writing
• All three of the above.
 Science of “Law”

• By Science of Law we mean an organized and critically controlled

body of knowledge both of legal institutions and legal precepts and of
the legal order, that is, of the legal ordering of Society.
Thank You