1. What is law?

· Law may be defined as a large body of rules and regulations based mainly on general principles
of justice, fair play and convenience, which have been worked out and promulgated by
governmental bodies to regulate human activities and define what is, and what is not
permissible conduct in various situations. It is a pattern of conduct to which actions do, or ought
to conform.

2. Diffrent schools of law

· Time and again, jurists have tried to give a clear-cut definition of what law is. They have
examined this discipline from vastly different angles since jurists wanted to understand what
constitutes law in different ways. However, they were unable to reconcile the difference in the
approaches and were thus unable to arrive at a hard-and-fast test to determine what to
categorize as ‘law’. As a result, as of now, there is no universally accepted definition of the law.

· Instead, we study the different definitions of law given by various jurists to arrive at a better
understanding of this discipline. Jurists and scholars have been classified into broadheads that
comprise the various schools of jurisprudence for our convenience. This helps us understand
their diverse approaches better and aids us in understanding the evolution of legal philosophy

· Analytical school

· The Analytical school of law emerged as a reaction against the Natural school of law. It focused
on creating a system of law in line with scientific and empirical methods and is also called the
‘imperative’ or ‘positive’ school of jurisprudence. It places emphasis on the will of the sovereign
or that of the State, which further dictates what the law is. This will is enforced on the people
through a system of punishments.

· Historical school

· This school talks about law being a culmination of years of Historical development and places
emphasis on both the commands and customs as being a source of law. Two main proponents of
this school are-

· Sociological school

· This school views laws primarily in terms of their relationship with society and having no
independent existence of its own. It places emphasis on studying the law ‘in action’ instead of in
isolation. The main proponents of this school are-

· Philosophical school

· According to this theory, the purpose by which a law is made is significant. Law is a means to
 ensure justice in the society. Morals and ethics have a major role to play in jurisprudence,
especially since a sense of right and wrong is intrinsic to the law. This sense of morality helps
people decide the course of action which would help maintain law and order in the society and
is concerned with a better future.

· Most scholars under this school are also of the view that restrictions on people’s liberty are
justified only if they promote the freedom of others in society. The ostensible purpose of the
law here is that it has the function of protecting human liberty. The end game here is human
perfection.

· Realist school

· As part of the Sociological approach, the Realist school is among the most recent schools of law
to have come up. It gives great importance to the law laid down by judges and concentrates on
systematic observation of the process of law-making and working of the law. This school
acknowledges that it is more concerned with what law should be, instead of what it actually is. It
concentrates upon the social impact of laws, looking at the legal decisions made by jurists. It is
divided into two subtypes: American Realism and Scandinavian realism.

· Natural school

· The Natural school is also called the ‘Divine’ school of law due to its close relationship with
theology and the concept of a natural state of affairs created by a superpower. It talks about a
higher law that is ‘natural’ or ‘divine’, and this determines the fate of the laws made by people.
All laws are measured by the yardstick of conformity to this Natural law and morality is closely
linked to laws in this theory. Expression of the will of the law-makers, if it violates this Natural
law, will lose its character and not be considered law.

· This theory of the law is one of the oldest and has been classified using four time periods-
ancient, medieval, renaissance and modern. It re-emerged because of the growing support for
positivist theories and was a reaction against them. This school focused on the ends that law
means to achieve, rather than its letter.

3. Legal process and its components

· Police and Law Enforcement

· Law enforcement in India is performed by numerous law enforcement agencies. Like many
federal nations, the nature of the Constitution of India mandates law and order as a subject of
the state, therefore the bulk of the policing lies with the respective states and territories of India.

·
· On an international level, organizations like Interpol handle law enforcement.

· · Judiciary

· The Indian Judiciary administers a common law system of legal jurisdiction, in which customs,
precedents and legislation, all codify the law of the land.

· There are various levels of judiciary in India – different types of courts, each with varying powers
depending on the tier and jurisdiction bestowed upon them. They form a strict hierarchy of
importance, in line with the order of the courts in which they sit, with the Supreme Court of
India at the top, followed by High Courts of respective states with district judges sitting in District
Courts and Magistrates of Second Class and Civil Judge at the bottom.

· Judiciary is one of the three pillars of our country and has an extremely role to play in our legal
system.

· · Prosecution

· Public prosecution is an important component of the public justice system. Prosecution of an

offender is the duty of the executive, which is carried out through the institution of the Public
Prosecutor. The public prosecutor is appointed by the State, and he conducts prosecution on
behalf of the State.

·
· · Non Governmental Organizations

· These are not for profit organizations that focus onto bringing in a societal change. Few NGOs
focus on development of legal system such as Human Rights Law Network in Mumbai. NGOs in
the recent decades have got recognition for their contribution and are on the rise.

4. esscence if law

· Law According to Allan Watson order is the essence of law. However he propounds that
legal process is essential part of the law. He opines that though legal process is essential
it is not central part of law. Law performs various functions such as regulating the social
behviour, justice, Although the process is both the distinguishing and the essential feature of law
it cannot be considered central feature of law. Because many legal disputes are resolved
without10recourse to legal process. Today many legislations are regulatory in character
where process is not prominent. However the central to law is recourse to an appropriate
process in disputing situations. The possibility or the threat of a process is the central feature
of law. Legal rules backed by the possibility of a process provide a feeling of positive security and
regulate behaviour and hence are directly conducive to order. Therefore ultimately order is the
essence of law.

5. Intereaction between law and society

· Allan Watson argues that inevitably the growth, history, and the social, political and
religious outlook of a society will have some influence on the legal rules.

· The changes in the society that are triggered by the cultural impacts and modernisation may
demand for change in the existing law. Yet a times change in the outlook of the life and living
pattern makes the society to demand for change or creation of law. Eg: Same Sex Marriage Law,
Decriminalizing Sec.377, recognising live-in relationship, Sometimes new problems that arise in
the society or aggravation of existing social and economic problems stimulate the general
public to agitate, protest, revolt against the State and demand for a law to curb the
menace. The State may heed to the demand may bring change in the law or make a new law
altogether to meet the demands of the people. Eg: Criminal law Amendment after Nirbhaya
incident, Enactment of Lokpal Act after Anna Hajare and Civil Society movement, enactment
of Domestic Violence Act, etc.

· Though the law and society has mutual impact yet there exists divergence between law and
society. The reasons for divergence could be attributed to legislator or rule maker and also
certain other factors. Law reform many time does not take place because legislature has no
 sufficient time. Eg- a clause was skipped during debate on Defamation Bill 1952 in UK,
because parliament dint had time to Third reading, hence the clause that gave
opportunity to defendant place evidence on record about the character of the plaintiff to
mitigate the damages was deleted without considering. The absence of that clause became
reason for unfair conviction of the defendant in many cases. Legislators may not reform the law
because it may offend their followers and it affects their future. Eg: In India – Women
Reservation in Legislatures Bill, Muslim Law Reform, Repealing or amending laws providing for
reservation, are not passed in the legislature as they are detrimental to their own interest or it
offends their followers. Few legislations are enacted as a ‘ gut reaction’ to particular event,
and such law to some extent may respond to what was needed at that time but it may not hold
good in long term. Because of the lack of interest on the part of legislature or such law
if changed may affect their interest hence such law may not be changed for very long time and
that continues to bother the society

6. Nature of man

· when we talk of some idea or concept as being ideological in character we mean that it forms
part of our outlook upon the world, upon the relation of man to the world and to socicety in the
its manifestations. The idea of law certainly partakes of this ideological character so that our
view of it will inevitably be colored by our general thinking about mans place in the would, the
view we may adopt of the nature of man, or of the human conditions, as mordern writer prefer
to call it and aim or purpose which may be called upon or required to fulfil. when we assert that
law either is or is not necessary to man we are clearly not just trying to state a simple physical
fact such that he can only attain a truly human condition given the existence or non existence of
law. Such a statement contains implicit whithin it an assumption as to mans goal or purpose as
toi what is good for man and what he needs for the attainment of those objectives.

· it is no doubt because of mans perennial and intense pre occupation with such issues that
thinkers of all ages and societies have been drawn into the interminable dispute as to the ethical
quality or potentiality of jmans nature. this dispute may indeed be thought by many today to be
not only interminablke but also senseless but whether this is so or not the position taken up has
formed the major premise in leading to the deduction whether or to what extent law is
necessary for man and so its importance for this purpose remains undeniable, for those who see
in man either the incarnation of evil or at best an amalgam of good and bad impulses contantly
in conflict the bad tendin grepeatedly to previal over the good it seems evident that here are
dark and dangerours forces implanted in mans very nature which need to be sternly curbed and
which if not curbed will lead to the total destruction of that social order in whose absence mans
state would be higher than no animal.