JURISPRUDENCE.

INTRODUCTION.
It comes from the Latin word Juris which means study of the law and
Prudentia which means knowledge. In other words, Jurisprudence is the
study of legal knowledge.
Ulpian defines Jurisprudence as the science of the Just and Unjust / Right /
wrong.
Salmond defines jurisprudence as the science of the 1st principle of civil
law.
Prof. Austin defines Jurisprudence as the philosophy / Science of positive
law.
Holland adds to Austins definition the term formal and thus defines
Jurisprudence as the formal science of positive law.
HLA hart defines Jurisprudence in terms of primary and secondary rules.
From the above definitions, we note that Jurisprudence is both an art and
science. Science from the scope of Holland, Austin and Salmond.

THE SOURCES OF LAW.

I) Customs, Traditions, Legislations, Precedent

VITALITY OF JURISPRUDENCE.

I) It explains the evolution of the law.

II) It enables us appreciate the basic principles of the law.
III) It aids judges in interpreting the law.
IV) It simplifies the law.
V) Its vital in scholarship and research.
VI) According to Prof. Dicey it brings theory to life.

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 SCHOOLS OF JURISPRUDENCE.
1. Natural Law School.
2. Historical School of Law.
3. Sociological School of Law.
4. Realistic School of Law.
5. Philosophical School of Law.

NATURE OF JURISPRUDENCE.
i) It is not procedural law e.g., criminal procedure or civil procedure.
ii) It is not substantive law i.e., law of contract / constitutional law.
iii) It gives us knowledge about basic principles of the law.
iv) It is uncodified law.
v) It is not interested in applying legal rules but rather with the nature of legal
rules.
vi) It is inter-disciplinary ie philosophical, sociological, political etc.

1. NATURAL SCHOOL OF LAW.

This school of jurisprudence represents the belief that laws are inherent
and common to all societies with only one source of law whose enforcer is
God and thus the law is divine, eternal and unchanging.
The central idea of this theory is that there is a higher law based on morality
against which the validity of human law can be measured and according to
Cicero, true law is right reason in agreement with Nature in his book De
Republica.
Source of law.
God
Nature.

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Reason.

Common values under Natural law:

i) There are absolute values upon which the rule of law should be
tested.
ii) There exists a rational order which can be known by man.
iii) Man can become aware of the universal, eternal and
comprehensible values, if he observes nature and understands it
correctly.
iv) That that which is good is in accordance to nature and that which
is evil is contrary to nature.
v) That a law which lacks moral validity is wrong and unjust.

ANCIENT .
In the ancient Greece we had Socrates, Plato, Aristotle whereas in Rome
we had Zeno and Plato.
Greek where law was related to justice and ethics.
Law must be in conformity with reason, justice and ethics.
Law refers to universal immutable standards discoverable through
reason and man-made law should conform.

Socrates view on Natural Law

Socrates believed that as there is natural physical law there is also
natural law. In his concept of natural law man has his own insight
which makes him know of the things whether they are good or bad, it
is this insight according to him by which a man is able to inculcate
the moral values in him, the only way to judge the basis of law
according to Socrates is man’s insight. He pleaded for the necessity
of Natural Law for security and stability of the country, which was one
of the principal needs of the age. His pupil Plato supported the same
theory.
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 Socrates defined virtue as a concept of good and averred that
everyman possessed virtue upon which he evaluated positive law. /
man made law and he invented the Socratic method where students
learn through the use of critical thinking, reasoning and logic.
He was later tried and executed for indoctrinating people with strange
gods.
PLATO.
He was a student of Socrates and wrote much about Socrates.
He made the doctrine of forms and stated that they exist
independently of the physical world, forms exist independently of the
human mind, space , time and that Natural law is immutable truth.
Invented the concept of idealism.ie pursuing some perfect vision or
belief.
According to Plato, the forms of goodness virtue, honesty were
immutable because they are given to all men in equal measure so
that men can have a sense of justice.

Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C.)

He was a student of Plato for 20 years but rejected doctrine of forms
by Plato although he didn’t reject the notion of forms. For Aristotle,
forms don’t exist independently of things. Every form is a form of
something.
According to him, man is a part of nature in two ways;
Firstly, he is the part of the creatures of the God, and
Secondly, he possesses insight and reason by which he can shape
his will.
By his reason, man can discover the eternal principle of justice. The
man’s reason being the part of the nature, the law discovered by
reason is called ‘natural justice’.
Positive Law should try to incorporate in itself the rules of ‘Natural Law’
but it should be obeyed even if it is devoid of the standard principle of
Natural Law.

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 The Law should be reformed or amend rather than be broken. He
argued that slaves must accept their lot for slavery was a ‘natural’
institution. Aristotle suggested that the ideals of Natural Law have
emanated from the human conscience and not from human mind and,
therefore, they are far more valuable than the Positive Law which is
an outcome of the human mind.

STOICS IN ROME.
Stoics was inspired by Aristotle but made his theory more ethical
and he asserted that when man lives according to reason, he
lives according to nature.

ZENO.
Was once a very wealthy merchant and lost everything while reading
Socrates and became interested in philosophy.
Zeno invented “stoicism” and his students were known as “stoics”. The
roman empire was influenced by stoicism and thus made 3 divisions:
Jus civile- civil law for romans.
Jus naturale- principles of natural law.
Jus Gentium -foreigner based law.

CICERO.
Cicero was a roman philosopher and stated that the law is the highest form
of reason implanted in nature which commands what ought to be done and
forbids the opposite.

MEDIEVAL PERIOD.
Thomas Aquanias.
In his book, summa theologica, he lays down major principles of his ideas
as follows:
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 i) God is the highest good and from him all things emerge.

ii) Law flows from divine reason and mans laws are ordinances of
reason made by him who has the care of the community and
promulgated for the common good.
He also advocated for limited powers of a sovereign and civil disobedience.
Divided law into:
i) Law of God.
ii) Natural law revealed through reason.
iii) Devine law revealed through scriptures.
iv) Human law which is positive law.

RENAISANCE PERIOD OF JURISPRUDENCE.

It is also known as modern classical era. Marked -rationalism and
arrogance of new ideas in different fields of law and in this era merged
the social contract theory. It was believed that man was born in a
state of nature in which there are no rights and no duties. The humans
came together and formed a social contract in other words, they came
together to form a civil society “pactum unionis” and after enter into
another contract called “pactum subjectionis” where they surrender
their freedoms to a superior. e.g., everyone has a right to life and there
is a duty not to kill bestowed unto everyone.
The major philosophers hereunder are:
Thomas Hobbes.
John Locke.
Jean Jacques Rousseau.
Thomas Hobbes.
Man was born in a state of nature and there was fear for instant death.
People therefore formed a social contract in which they gave power to
the state. (sovereign) who was responsible for promoting security for
the right to life.

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 HLA HART.
Attempted to marry natural law with positivism i.e. law is a social fact.
Laws and morals are conceptually separable, law consists of a union
between primary and secondary rules.

2. REALIST SCHOOL OF LAW.

- It is also called legal realism/ realist school of law and it believes

that law is what the psychology of courts determines.

- Law is therefore an aggregate item of judicial and official actions.

- Law is not therefore a set of legal prepositions / rules but official

actions of court/ judges.

- It is called the realist school because it studies law in its actual

working “law as it is and not as it ought to be”

- In this school, courts are the real legislators and without practical
application of the law, statutes are likened to “dead wood” In
other words, without practical application of the law, law is dead
wood.

- It also believes law is not predictable but depends on the facts in

court.

- Law is applied by lawyers and judges and there reasoning cannot

be separated from the law.

- This school therefore studies law in action and judgements given

by judges taking into consideration the human factors which
influence judges including their own experience and cultures.
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 - The realist school can further be divided into:

i) American realists. E.g John Chipman Gray, Oliver Wendell

Holmes, Jerome Frank, Karl Llewellyn.

ii) European realists i.e Scandavians including: Axel

Hagelstorm, Karl Oliver crona, Alf Ross.

JOHN CHIPMAN GRAY.

- All law is judge made law.
- Legislation is no more than a source of law.
- It is courts which put life to dead woods of statutes.
- Law is influenced by political, economic, and personal qualities.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

- Judge of Supreme Court USA.
- Wrote essay on “Path of the law”
- Introduced the bad man theory of law. i.e bad men in society
don’t care about the law, they are only worried about the
consequences of the law.
- Law is a product of experience and logic of judges.
- Law is the thing that courts do and not simply what the court
states.
- He also instituted the prediction theory whereby law is not defined
until the judge decides the case.
- Defined law as a prediction of how courts behave.

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 JEROME FRANK.
- Certainty of the law is a legal myth.
- Jerome Frank called himself the “constructive legal sceptic”
- Law would never exist in full and perfect body and it keeps on
changing depending on those who interpret it.
- The realist school is a mixture of sociological and positivist
approach and there are two types of realists. i.e. rule sceptics
and fact sceptic.
- Judges’ decisions maybe influenced by race, sex, religion but there
are also unconscious biases towards certain people. Eg. Catholic
biases on abortion.
- Jerome Frank in his book “law and modern mind” he states that
the certainty of the law depends on the psychological aspects of a
case.

Karl Llewellyn.
- Law is a very complex institution which has a body of rules based
on a large number of principles and also uses precedents and
ideology.
- It contains may practices both flexible and others are rigid.
Behind judgements, there are judges who have human
backgrounds and law is meant to solve social needs.

SCANDAVIAN REALISTS.
Prof. Dias states that there is hardly a scandavian realist theory
because of the major contradictions amongst the philosophers under
this school.
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 Scandavian realists majorly come from Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
and Ross and Axel Haggelstorm are the spiritual fathers of this school.
Others include Oliver Crona and Lundstedt.

The school rejects the natural law school , legal concepts based on
experience, observation and experimentation.

- Axel Haggelstorm was not a lawyer but rather a philosopher who

directed his attention on law and ethics as a source of metaphysics.
- He believed modern law was a ritualistic exercise and believed
words such as right and duty were meaningly because they could
not be scientifically verified.
- He asserted that the relationship between law and ritual is like that
of liquor and its container in that liquor couldn’t exist independently
of its container.
- He rejected ideas of good and bad.
- Defined judgements as mere emotional expressions.

KARL OLIVERCRONA.
- Didn’t define law.
- Sought to investigate the law and not its nature.
- Insisted on examining facts rather than assumptions.
- Stated that law has a binding force when valid and it loses the
same when it is declared invalid.
- Law is nothing but a set of social facts.

ROSS.
Was more concerned with Validity and not interpreting law inform
of social facts.

MERITS OF REALIST SCHOOL.

- Highlights role of judiciary
- Real nature of law is revealed via practical application.
- Courts are run on precedents.
- Judges are very learned and the best legislators.
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 CRITICISM OF REALIST SCHOOL.
- Only based on thoughts.
- Ignores legislation
- Ignores customs
- Less importance to law.
- More importance to logic and emotions.
- Less importance to legal terminology.

3. ANALYTICAL SCHOOL OF LAW.

The major protagonists hereunder are Austin, HLA Hart, Kelsen,
Holland, Salmond, Bentham.
It is also known as the Imperative school of law or Positivist school
of law./ Bentham school which deals with the relationship between the
law and the state.
It is also called teleological school because it discusses purposes of the law
and not causes of the law.
Nevertheless, Austin is the father of the Analytical school.
SIR JOHN AUSTIN.
He was an English jurist who is also known as the father of English
jurisprudence.
Austin lectured at the University of London and wrote a book called “the
province of jurisprudence determined.”
Austinian concept of law avers that law is a command of a sovereign
backed by a sanction. / law laid down for the guidance of an intelligent
human being by an intelligent human being having power over him.
Austin divided law into:
I) Law so properly called.
ii) Law improperly so called.

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Law so properly called was further divided into: Human law and God given
law whereby Human law was given by a political superior whereas God
given law was not made by a political superior.
Austin said Jurisprudence is concerned with positive laws and not
concerned with goodness or badness of the law and Positive law is the
general rule of external human action enforced by a sovereign political
authority.

CRITICISM OF AUSTINIAN THEORY.

I) It ignored custom
II) Judge made law was ignored.
III) Volkegiest ignored. (will of the people)
IV) It is a law conferring privileges.
V) Treated international law as morality.
VI) Sanctions are not necessary for obeying the law. E.g civil law.

HANS KELSEN.
He is famous for the Kelsen theory of law and he was from Austria Vienna
and belonged to the Normative school of law.
He invented the Pure theory of law which separated law from ethics,
morality and political science. In otherwards, law separated from
everything which is not law and also free from social, political and historical
influences.
Defined law as a grand norm ie starting point of a legal system.
It must be noted that the normative school of law basically emphasized
what the law ought to be.
In other words, when one commits a crime, he ought to take punishment.
Kelsen also emphasized the notion of grand norm whereby the constitution
was the supreme law of the land and any other law inconsistent with it was
null and void to the extent of its inconsistency.
CRITICISM OF KELSEN.

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 I) Private law and public law are not different.
II) State and the law are not different.
III) No difference between natural and jurisitic person.
IV) Vague.
V) Customs are ignored.
VI) Natural law was ignored.
VII) Supports dictatorship.

HLA HART.
He wrote a book called the concept of law where he defined law as rules
which are of broad application and non-optional in character.
Law is a set of primary and secondary rules. Primary meaning duty binding
rules (rights giving rules eg.CPC)
Seconday rules used for removing defects in primary rules. E.g., Rules of
adjudication, rule of change, rule of recognition.
BENTHAM
Bentham is famous for his pleasure and pain theory of law and in his
book, the limits of jurisprudence defined he stated that pleasure and pain
govern not only how humans act but also how they ought to act and also
developed a pleasure seeking calculus based on : certainty, duration, extent,
intensity, purity and fertility. In otherwards, motives are defined by how
much happiness an act brings to society.
He also defined law as an assemblage of signs before classifying law into:
Expository jurisprudence and censorial jurisprudence.
Expository which deals with what the law is.
Censorial which deals with what the law ought to be.
In a nutshell, he propounded the Utilitatrian Individualism principle i.e
Greatest happiness / greatest number.
CRITICISM.
i) Not all law has punishment.

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 ii) Ignored customs and precedent.
iii) All his thoughts are centered on sovereign.(legislature)\
iv) Ignored historical, sociological, economic school.
v) Ignorance towards personal laws e.g. Islamic law.
vi) Ignored judicial review.
vii) Can’t be considered for international law which has multiple
sovereigns.

HOLLAND.
Defined
Jurisprudence as a formal science of positive laws i.e., law strictly so
called and has nothing to do with goodness or badness of law. It is also
formal because it only describes the form / external sight of the subject and
not the internal contents.
According to Holland, Jurisprudence is not concerned with the actual material
contents of the law but with fundamental conceptions.

SALMOND.
Jurisprudence is the science of law, law of the land, civil law divided into:
Generic - entire body of legal doctrines
Specific - particular department of legal doctrines.

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 4. HISTORICAL SCHOOL OF
JURISPRUDENCE.

Historical School of Jurisprudence relies on the customs and habits of

people, which change as their needs change. It’s also known as the
Continental School of Jurisprudence.

It denotes that law developed with customs, religion, tradition and thus
with civilization. In other words, law is formulated by the people for the
people and the sovereign only enforces the already existing law and in the
words of Savigny is a product of the general consciousness of the people.

The Historical School of Jurisprudence is a legal philosophy that emerged in

the 19th century, emphasising the significance of historical and societal
context in understanding and shaping legal systems. This school of thought
contends that laws are not abstract, universal principles but are intricately
connected to the customs, traditions and evolving consciousness of a society.

Key figures such as Friedrich Carl von Savigny, Montesquieu and

Georg Friedrich Puchta played pivotal roles in developing this
jurisprudential approach. Savigny’s concept of “Volksgeist” highlighted the
collective will of the people in moulding the law, while Montesquieu
emphasized the necessity of adapting laws to changing social and
environmental conditions. Puchta refined and rationalized these ideas.

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The Historical School of Jurisprudence acknowledges the value of legislation
and codification while stressing the continuous evolution of laws to meet the
needs of a progressing society. It has significantly enriched our
comprehension of law as a dynamic reflection of the human experience
across time, providing valuable insights into the development and
transformation of legal systems.

The Historical School rejects the idea that judges create laws or that laws
have a divine origin.

To quote Salmond, “Historical jurisprudence is the part of legal history that

deals with the general principles governing the origin and development of
law and how various influences shape it.

According to this theory, the law is the result of past forces and past
influencers. Moreover, the law is built and grown on the general
consciousness of people. The consciousness, however, starts from the
very beginning of the society. In addition, some of the factors that affect this
long historical development are as follows:

• Society and social customs.

• Many religious and convention principles.
• Also, the economic needs of society play a crucial role.
• Last but not the lease, the needs, and desires of the citizens

Montesquieu

According to Sir Henry Maine, the 1st Jurist to adopt the historical method
of understanding the legal institution was Montesquieu.

Montesquieu asserted that it is irrelevant to discuss whether the law is good

or bad because the law depends on social, political and environmental
conditions prevailing in society. / social milieu.

Montesquieu concluded that the “law is the creation of the climate, local
situation, accident or imposture”. He was of the view that law must change
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according to changing needs of the society. He suggested that the law should
answer the needs of the place and should change according to time, place
and needs of the people.

One of the best-known works of Montesquieu was his book ‘The Spirit of
laws’. In this book, he represents his beliefs in political Enlightenment ideas
and suggests how the laws are required to modify according to the needs of
people and society.

Savigny

Savigny is regarded as a father of the Historical school of jurisprudence and

he stated that “law is like a language and grows with growth and
strengthens with strength of the people. And that it also dies away as a
nation losses its nationality. i.e the law of the state grows with the
strengthening of the state nationality and law dies or fade away when
nationality loosens its strength in the state.

Savigny believes that the law cannot be borrowed from outside. And the
main source of law is the consciousness of the people.

Friedman summarizes Savigny’s concepts on the historical school as follows:

• Law is like language which eventually grows.

• Law cannot be of universal validity nor be constructed on the basis of

certain rational principles or eternal principles.

• Law is sui generis.

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 • Law is found or discovered not made. It can’t be made artificially like
the invention of an object.

• Law is found on the basis of consciousness, customs and beliefs of the

people.

Other.

• Law is antecedent to the state

• Historical school is against codification of the law.

• Law is dynamic.

Savigny’s Volksgeist theory.

• Volksgeist means “national character”. According to Savigny’s

Volksgesit, the law is the product of general consciousness of the
people or will. The concept of Volksgeist was served as a warning
against the hasty legislation and introduce the revolutionary abstract
ideas on the legal system. Unless they support the general will of the
people. In other words, the nature of any particular system of law is a
reflection of the spirit of the people who evolved it and thus a
manifestation of common consciousness.

Basically, Savigny was of the view that law should not be found from
deliberate legislation but should be made and arises out of the general
consciousness of the people.

HENRY MAIN.

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 - He is famous for his “from status to contract theory” i.e in
traditional societies, the rights and obligations were basically
determined in accordance to the social status of the individual
and that progressive societies are now moving away from
obligations by virtue of status to obligations by virtue of contract.

He also initiated the four stages of development i.e

1) Law was made by command of a ruler.
2) Crystallization of commands into customary law.
3) Administration of customs by priests.
4) Codification of the law.

Burke:

According to him, law is a product of gradual and organic processes.

5. SOCIOLOGICAL JURISPRUDENCE:
The main exponents of sociological jurisprudence are: Montesquieu,
Auguste Comte, Albert Spencer, Ihering, Ehrlich, Duguit, Roscoe
Pound etc.
It must be noted that the French thinker Auguste Comte is regarded as
founding the father of the sociological school of law and the main subject
matter of sociology is Society in that Sociology is the study of society,
human behaviour as well as social changes.
In other words, the Sociological school of Jurisprudence advocates that
the Law and society are related to each other and the law is a product of
social engineering.
This school argues that the law is a social phenomenon because it has a
major impact on society. Sociological school of law focuses on studying the
law in practice with relation to the society and it lays emphasis on actual
social conditions and situations which require the help of the law.
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 The characteristics of Sociological school of law:

1. Sociological School of Law lays emphasis more on the functional aspect

of law rather than its abstract content.

2. They consider law as a social institution essentially interlinked with other

scientists and the direct impact of the law on society with its formation
according to social needs.

3. Sociological School of Law completely neglects positivism i.e., the

command of sovereign and also historical jurisprudence.

4. Sociological jurists describe the perception of the law in different ways like
the functional aspect of law or defining the law in terms of the court’s rulings
and decisions with a realistic approach of law.

5. The sociological jurists have greater concerns when it comes to the

functioning and working of the law rather than the nature of the law.

Montesquieu (1689-1755):

Montesquieu was the French philosopher and he paved the way of the
sociological school of jurisprudence. He was of the view that the legal
process is somehow influenced by the social condition of society.

He also recognized the importance of history as a means for understanding

the structure of society and explained the importance of studying the history
of society before formulating the law for that society.

In his book ‘The Spirit of Laws’, he wrote:

“law should be determined by the characteristics of a nation so that they

should be in relation to the climate of each country, to the quality of each
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soul, to its situation and extent, to the principal occupations of the natives,
whether husbandmen, huntsmen or shepherd, they should have relation to
the degree of liberty which the constitution will bear, to the religion of the
inhabitants, to their inclinations, riches, numbers, commerce, manners, and
customs.”

Auguste Comte (1786-1857)

He is considered to be the founder of the science of sociology. Comte’s

method may be called 'Scientific Positivism'. He pleads for the application
of the scientific method to the science of sociology. Society is like an
organism and it can progress when it is guided by scientific principles.
These principles should be formulated by observation and experience of
facts excluding all metaphysical and other like considerations. The
implications of Comte's theory are many. He greatly influenced the
philosophical and scientific thoughts of his time. In the field of legal theory,
Comte's ideas inspired Durkheim, and who, in his turn, inspired Duguit, a
great sociological jurist.

Ihering: (1818-1892):
Ihering was another sociological jurist known for his monumental work
‘spirit of the law’. He was against the theory of individuals welfare and
favours the factor that social interest of society must have a priority over an
individual’s interest and the purpose of the law is to protect the interest of
society, that is why his theory is known as ‘Jurisprudence of Interest’
which emphasizes on the sociological aspect of Sociological School of Law.
He described the law in following aspects:
1. Law as a result of Constant Struggle: Ihering pointed out that the social
struggle gives birth to law and the role of law is to harmonize the conflicting
interests of individuals for the purpose of protection of interest of society.

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He gave importance to living law which develops with the struggles of
society.
2. Law as a means to serve Social Purpose: According to him, the ultimate
goal of the law is to serve a social purpose. It is the duty of the state to
promote social interests by avoiding various clashes between social and
individual interests.
According to him, “law is coercion organized in a set form by the state”,
which means that he justified coercion by the state for the purpose of social
welfare.
3. Law as one of the means to control society: Law alone is not a means
to control society, there are some other factors also like climate, etc. Like
Bentham, Ihering favours the interest in the achievement of pleasure and
avoidance of pain but for the society, that’s the reason that Ihering theory
is also known as the theory of “Social Utilitarianism”.
So, according to the Ihering, the social activities of individuals can be
controlled by the state by means of coercion, reward and duty for achieving
social control for the welfare of society. Friedman said that
“Ihering was declared as the father of modern sociological jurisprudence
because of his concept of law as one of the important effective factors to
control social organisms.”

Criticism:
1. He Points Out Only the Problems, and not the Solution.
2. Law Protects 'Will' and not Purpose'.
Eugen Ehrlich (1862-1922):
Eugen Ehrlich was considered as the founder of Sociology of law. Sociology
of law is the study of law from the sociological perspective.
Ehrlich considered society as a main source of the law. And by society,
he means “association of men”.
Ehrlich had written that “Centre of gravity of all legal developments is not in
legislation or judicial decisions but in society itself.” He argued that society
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is the main source of law and better source of law than legislation or judicial
decision.
Criticism:

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.
Duguit’s theory was based upon Auguste Compte’s statement that
“the only right which man can possess is the right towards his duty.” 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 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.
Roscoe Pound (1870-1964):
Rosco Pound was a Professor at Havard Law School and he criticized
formalism as an ideal.
Rosco Pound criticized formalism because he believed that it over
emphasized consistency yet the law was meant to serve social interests.
He recognized that interests change as society grows and law must also be
dynamic or changing. He averred that it was very wrong for judges to
concentrate on precedent vis Avis helping people.
In otherwards, he asserted that law must be stable but it must not stand
still. Rosco pound also asserted that law must be studied in its actual working
and not as it is in the book.

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Pound also asserted that law should be studied in its actual working and
not as it stands in the book.
He was one of the most leading and important jurists who developed
American sociological jurisprudence is a systematic manner. He treated the
law as a means of affecting social control and his contribution to
jurisprudence is great. The functional aspect of the law.
Roscoe Pound gave stress on the functional aspect of law. He defines law as
containing the rules, principles, conceptions and standard of conduct as a
developed technique of social engineering.
According to Pound, the main function of law is to satisfy the maximum
number of people. Not only this function but also to reconcile the conflict in
the interest of individuals and society. In his theory of Social Engineering:
Roscoe Pound compared lawyers with the Engineers.
Engineers are required to use their engineering skill to manufacture new
products. Similarly, social engineers are required to build that type of
structure in the society which provides maximum happiness and minimum
friction.
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. In other words, The objective
of the law is to create a balance between the interests of the people.

Summarized by Gukiina Patrick Musoke.

Ugandan Lawyer, author and Consultant.
gukiimeni@gmail.com

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