Roscoe Pound : Social

Engineering
Submitted To : Mrs Bhavna Batra
Submitted By : Nimish Mahajan
A3221611038, Bcom LLB, 7th Semester
 Intoduction
• Pound was born on October 27, 1870, in
Lincoln, Nebraska
• Pound attended the University of Nebraska,
earning a bachelor of arts degree in botany in
1888
• He was a prolific writer and his major works
include The Spirit of The Common Law(1921,
An Introduction to The Philosophy of Law
(1922) etc
 Social Engineering
• Man is a social animal and needs a society for his
leaving, working and enjoying life
• The force which asks for the adoption of Social
engineering is nothing but the conflict of interests of
individuals
• “Social” means group of individual forming a society
• “engineering” , he explained his concept by explaining
the role of engineer/architect and equating it to
lawyer’s. Just as an engineer chalks up a plan before
starting a project so do lawyer’s they must work with a
goal in mind to uplift society
 Interest Theory
• In a society everybody is motivated by their own
interest and wants that preference be given to his
or her interest over the other. Conflicts between
interests arise because of the competition of the
individuals with each other
• For this purpose a legal system has to
• Recognize certain interest
• Define the limits within which such interest are to
be legally recognized and given effect to it.
• And finally the above interest should be secured
• Pound classified various interests which are to be protected
by the law under three categories which are the following :
• INDIVIDUAL INTERESTS: These are claims or demands
involved from the stand point of the individual life which
consists of interest of personality, interest in domestic
relations and interest of substance
• PUBLIC INTEREST: These are the claims or desires asserted
by the individual from the stand point of political life which
means every individual in a society has a responsibility
towards each other and to make the use of things which
are open to public use. Interest in preservation of state
• SOCIAL INTEREST: These are the claims or demands in
terms of social life which means to fulfil all the needs of a
society as a whole for the proper functioning and
maintenance of it. Interest in preservation of general
peace, health, security of transaction’s, preserving social
institutions like religion, politics, economic
 Jural Postulates
• The guidelines on the basis of which social engineering should be
carried out.
• In 1919, Pound summarized theFive postulates, They are :
• Others will not commit any intentional aggressions upon him. E.g.
Assault, battery, wrongful restraint etc.
• Others will act with due care and will not cast upon him an
unreasonable risk of injury. E.g. Negligence
• He can appropriate what he has created by his own labour and
what he has acquired under existing economic order for his own
use. E.g. agricultural land and usufruct as property.
• The people with whom he deals with in the general intercourse of
society will act in good faith. E.g. Defamation
• He must keep the things within his boundary and should look after
those things so that their escape should not harm others. E.g.
Ryland vs. Fletcher case
• In 1942, Pound added three new postulates in the list
which are :
• A person will have security as a job holder. E.g. ruled by
labour law, law of contract
• Society will bear the burden of supporting him when
he becomes aged. E.g. 1/3rd concession in railway
ticket, ceiling of income tax range is more.
• The society as a whole will bear the risk of unforeseen
misfortunes such as disablement. E.g. reservation
quota for physically disabled person in education,
travel etc.
• The jural postulates are to be applied both by the
legislators and judiciary for evaluating and balancing
the various interests and harmonizing them
 Criticism
• Social engineering has been criticized for the
use of the term engineering, which equates
society to a factory like mechanism
• Ignores the fact that law evolves and develops
in the society according to social needs and
wants
• The dynamic feature of law is undermined
• The Conflict of interest’s e.i Social and
Individual