Jurisprudence for Lay-people

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 Murderer Freed

 XYZ Kidnapped

Agreement Reached / Broken

Meaning of Juris-prudence

Juris =

Prudentia =
Divine Right of Kings in Christianity

Ruler is appointed by God

Makes laws according to God’s command

Unjust laws must be accepted as God’s will

Church and State in Europe
Pope of Rome & European Kings helped each other
in ruling

But sometimes the Pope deposed Kings by ruling

against him

This led to prolonged struggle between Church and

State
Reformation of the Church
Criticisms by Martin Luther of Church of Rome

Purchasing salvation

Ultimate separation of Church & State

Jurisprudence in Media

Zandoo Baam case.

Emami vs Dabangg (Salman Khan)
Copyright Violation
Entertainment Law
Jurisprudence Explained

Knowledge of fundamental principles of law.

According to Bentham
Jeremy Bentham 1748 to 1832, England
Utilitarianism, legal positivism, liberalism
“The art of being methodically ignorant of what
every body knows”.

Bentham assumes that everyone knows the law &

this idea is controversial.
Jurisprudence Re-cap

Jus / Juris = Law

Prudentia = Knowledge / Wisdom
Knowledge of Law in Literal Sense
Importance of Jurisprudence

Eye of the Law

Grammar of the Law
Foundation of the Law
Modern Jurisprudence
Began in 18th Century & studied

Natural Law

Civil Law &

Law of Nations @ War

Natural law
The naturalist school of jurisprudence

A system of right or justice held to be common to all

humans and derived from nature rather than from
the rules of society, or positive law

Based on Religion
 Natural Law
Natural law = Divine / Moral law

Limits set by God or Reason to misuse of Law by Rulers

Rational Objective limits to Repression

Rational = Reasonable

In Natural Order

Kill all Hindus/ Muslims

Common Concepts in Religious Law

Common to all Religions:

Belief in divine right of kings

Belief in life after death & reward

Belief in Pre-destination
John Locke on Natural Law
Natural law can be discovered by reason alone and
applies to all people.

In Locke's theory, divine law and natural law are

consistent and can overlap in content

Locke said men are naturally free and equal as part of

the justification for understanding legitimate
political government
 Locke's Natural Rights
In-alienable rights:
Human beings are Free & Equal

Right to Well-being

Right to Private Property

American Revolution

Popular sovereignty.

Equality before the law

Constitutional rights and rule of law.

Boston Tea Party
The demonstrators, destroyed an entire shipment of
tea sent by the East India Company.
Colonists objected to the Tea Act because they
believed that it violated their rights to "No taxation
without representation", that is, to be taxed only by
their own elected representatives and not by a
British parliament in which they were not
represented.
Declaration
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.
What is happiness calculated?
Bentham’s Theories
Bentham sketched a "happiness-making" calculus,
which takes into account the intensity, duration,
likelihood, extent, etc of pleasures and pains
Bentham considered "natural rights [to be] simple
nonsense" and "natural and imprescriptable rights,
rhetorical nonsense, - nonsense upon stilts.”
Utilitarianism
Began in 18th century with Jeremy Bentham

Jeremy Bentham: 15 February 1748 to 6 June 1832

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that states that the best action is the
one that maximizes utility.

Bentham saw Man as pleasure-seeker

Influenced the American Revolution in 1776 & French Revolution in

1789
Utilitarian Jurisprudence
Man seeks pleasure & shuns pain
Legislator must study this to write laws

Laws should bring greatest happiness to maximum

people

Utility is the tendency of a thing to prevent evil or

procure good
Departure from Morality

Bentham made justice & morality irrelevant

Departed from Natural law

Legal Positivism is investigative science:

If maximum number of people get maximum benefit then law

should be enacted
Greatest Happiness Principle

"the principle of utility“

what is morally obligatory is that which produces the

greatest amount of happiness for the greatest
number of people, happiness being determined by
reference to the presence of pleasure and the
absence of pain.
Positive law
Human-made laws that oblige or specify an action. It
also describes the establishment of specific rights
for an individual or group.

Distinct from Natural Law

Thus study of jurisprudence is study of Positive Laws