Sociological School Of

Jurisprudence
INTRODUCTION

The Sociological approach to the study of law is the most important

characteristic of our age. Jurists belonging to this school of thought are
concerned more with the working of law rather than its abstract content.
They are concerned with the study of law in relation to society.
Sociological school of law focuses on studying the law in practice
with relation to the society. They lay emphasis on actual social conditions
and situations which require the help of the law.
The main subject matter of sociology is Society. Sociology is the study of
society, human behavior, and social changes. And jurisprudence is the study of
law and legal aspect of things. The Sociological school of Jurisprudence
advocates that the Law and society are related to each other. This school argues
that the law is a social phenomenon because it has a major impact on society.

The main concern of sociological jurists is to study the effect of law

and society on each other. They treat law as an instrument of social progress.
The relation between positive law and ideals of justice also affects the
sociology of law.
MEANING

The idea of Sociological School is to establish a relation between the Law and
society. This school laid more emphasis on the legal perspective of every
problem and every change that take place in society. Sociological School of
Jurisprudence focuses on balancing the welfare of state and individual was
realized.
All the jurists who define law in relation to society in terms of ends
which law serves and the interests which the law satisfies and the common
good which the law seeks to achieve – thereby make law as an instrument of
social control and social change are grouped together as jurists belonging to
Sociological School of Jurisprudence.
The Main Purpose Of The Ideological Aim Of The Sociological
Jurists Are:
“To study the effects of law and societal strata on one another and how each of
their degree of impact affects the other”.
Therefore, it is safe to consider sociological jurisprudence to be a practice that
helps resolve the societal problem immediately. This process of resolving a
dispute can be possible with either of the following approaches:
1. Legal techniques which promote societal harmony.
2. Extra-legal approaches that ensure the balance of societal interests.
ROSCOE POUND THEORY
Pound is the most systematic writer on the sociological jurisprudence. Pounds
concentrated more on the functional aspect of law.
According to Pound, “Law is social engineering which means a balance
between the competing interests in society,” in which applied science is used
for resolving individual and social problems.
He, therefore, stresses the need of paramount co-ordination and co-
operation between the legislators, administrators, judges and jurists to work in
unison towards the realization and effective implementation of law for securing
social harmony and social justice to the general public with the a minimum of
waste or friction and maximum of material satisfaction of wants, needs and
interest .
He termed this as “SOCIAL ENGINEERING”.
He mentioned that everybody has its own individual interest and considered it
supreme over all other interest. The objective of the law is to create a balance
between the interests of the people.
Roscoe Pound in his interest theory mentioned the three kinds of interest. To
avoid the overlapping of the interests, he put boundaries and divide the kinds
of interests.

1. Private Interests

2. Public Interests

3. Social Interests
1. Individual Interest
These are claims or demands involved from the standpoint of the individual life
which consists of interest of personality, interest in domestic relations and interest
of substance.
2. Public Interest
These are the claims or desires asserted by the individual from the standpoint 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
the preservation of state.
3. Social Interest
These are the claims or demands in terms of social life which means to fulfill all
the needs of society as a whole for the proper functioning and maintenance of it.
Interest in the preservation of general peace, health, security of transaction’s,
preserving social institutions like religion, politics, economic.
Jural Postulates by Roscoe Pound

In order to evaluate the conflicting interests in due order of priority , pound

suggested that every society has certain basic assumption upon which its
ordering rests, through for most of the time they may be implicit rather than
expressly formulated. This assumption may be called as jural postulates of the
legal system of that society. In 1919 Pound has mentioned five jural postulates
they are:-
1. Jural postulate I / Criminal - When a man lives in society Others will not
commit any intentional aggressions upon him. E.g. Assault, battery,
wrongful restraint etc.
2. Jural postulate II / Law of Patent - 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.

3. Jural postulate III/ Tort - The people with whom he deals with in the
general intercourse of society will act in good faith. E.g. Defamation.

4. Jural postulate IV / Contract - The interest in making the contract and

getting of reasonable remedy or compensation when his right violate.

5. Jural postulate V/ Strict Liability - He must keep the things within his
boundary and should look after those things so that their escape should not
harm others. E.g. Rylands vs. Fletcher case.
Pounds confessed that these jural postulates are not absolute but they have a
relative value. These are a sort of ideal standards which law should pursue in
society they are of a changing nature and new postulates may emerge if the
changes in society so warrant. Thus the jural postulates by Roscoe pound
provide guidelines for righteous and civilized life and they also seek to strike a
synthesis between reality and idealism as also power and social accountability
of men in the community.
 CRITICISM

 Social engineering has been criticized for the use of the term engineering,
which equates society to a factory like mechanism.

 The theory ignores the fact that law evolves and develops in the society
according to social needs and wants.

 The dynamic feature of law is undermined in this theory.

 The Conflict of interest’s i.e. Social and Individual was not distinguished by
this theory.
 Leon Duguit (1859-1928)

Leon Duguit was a French Jurist and leading scholar of Droit

Public (Public Law). He was greatly influenced by the Auguste
Comte and Durkheim. He gave the theory of Social Solidarity
which explain the social cooperation between individuals for their
need and existence.

Social Solidarity
Social Solidarity is the feeling of oneness. The term ‘Social
Solidarity represents the strength, cohesiveness, collective
consciousness and viability of the society.’ Leon Duguit’s Social
Solidarity explain the interdependence of men on his other fellow
men..
No one can survive without the depending on other men. Hence
the social interdependence and cooperation are very important for
human existence

The objective of the law is to promote Social solidarity between

individuals. And Leon Duguit considered that law as bad law
which does not promote social solidarity.
Further, he also said that every man had the right and duty to
promote social solidarity.

For Example, in India, the codified laws are followed by everyone.

Hence, it promotes Social Solidarity.
SOME IMPORTANT JURIST OF SOCIOLOGICAL
SCHOOL

• Rudolph Von Ihring

• Eugen Ehrlich

• Justice Holmes