Lecture 1.

Study of law:
 In our daily course of life we come across situations in which we deal with legal and
semi-legal matters.
 As we live on this earth legal matters do arise, we deal with legal matters consciously,
unconsciously, intentionally, unintentionally in our daily course of life. I.e. we make
purchases (buy and sale), enter into contract for the sale of our property and if we’re in
business we make various commercial deals, pay income tax, sales-tax or for that matter
negotiate with a public utility organization or any other governmental or semi-
governmental body for our daily requirements. i.e. we have make our CNIC we go to
NADRA, we need education we go to educational institutes for admission, we need
groceries for our house we go to market and make purchases and the way we make
purchases is by money and for that we need a job and mostly salary is deposited in our
bank accounts so therefore, we also need to be equipped with the knowledge of banking.
 In dealing of above nature we need to know the law either it is Law of Contract, the Law
of Property, Sales of Goods Act or rules and regulations like those of municipal
organization. I.e. law says that you can make mistakes of facts but you cannot make
mistake of law. As a citizen of Pakistan if we come into any legal matter and we say that
‘we did not know the law’ this cannot be used as your defense for that matter you can
punished by penalty, or pay compensation or even may spend time in jail.
 To know the law is not only privilege of the lawyers but it is in the self-interest and
general good of one’s own self. I.e. As property is purchased and devolved to the
younger generation, it is important for them to know the Transfer of Property Act, Law of
Inheritance etc. According to sharia property which parents have made from their own
money will only devolve to their children but if parents himself inherited property from
his elders then property will have share among his siblings and children and spouse.
 If we will know the fundamentals of the Law of Contracts, we will be in a better position
to make deal effectively.
 Selling a house and or buying a piece of cloth appears to be very simple but little do we
realize its legal implication. To make promise to sell or buy something is not so difficult
but consider the legal implication in case you back out from you promise. I.e. if you back
out from your promise then first you will receive legal notice then a suit will be filed in
the court against you. If you have given somebody a loan you have 3-years to recover the
sum from the person you have lent money according to the Limitation Act otherwise
court will recognize that you have a legal right but will not enforce it.
 By information given above importance of law can be determined; that law is inescapable
and extremely useful for us.
Study of Jurisprudence:
 Jurisprudence mostly is the study of reasoning of the positive laws. Positive laws are
those laws which humans made by their reasoning for humans. Here no any religion
plays its part it’s completely for humans by humans.
 Jurisprudence means ‘the knowledge of the fundamental principle of law’. We cannot
study any subject of law unless we know what basic principles of law are. I.e. Every
aspect of every human being is connected to some law either it is a worldly law or moral
law. Some things are determined on the grounds of morality as ‘you talk in respect with
your parents’ and ‘show mercy and love to younger ones’ are examples of morality.
Morality is the basis of the formation of law, laws were not made by themselves first
morals came in force and on that laws were made.
 Every field of the world has something to do with law for example: medical, engineering,
arts etc. Whenever a doctor is graduated he takes oath to serve people under the law,
whenever an engineer is graduated he is affiliated with PEC and takes oath which is
under law.
 Forensic play a vital role in law, whenever murder is committed the forensic team gathers
the information such as; from what distance bullet was shot, what was the gun, was the
car’s window broke by gun or it was broken deliberately, every possible samples are
collected. While conviction forensic plays very important role.
 To understand the criminal procedure code, civil procedure code, transfer of property Act
and Contract Act you need to know the basic principles and notions underlying and
concerning the subjects as such. I.e. if you are solving a murder case which has been
committed by negligence you need to be equipped with the knowledge of medical for that
because you will be able to understand the reports and happening of the events.
Jurisprudence- it’s meaning:
 The romans were the first to study Legal philosophy as a distinct branch of learning and
to reduce the legal phenomenon to order and coherence. Coherence means how you put
society together. In a society where there is chaos it breaks into pieces and becomes
unstable. Wherever law and order maintained society works collectively and cohesively.
 The science of jurisprudence is in its name. The word jurisprudence is derived from Latin
word jurisprudentia; to dissect this term jus or juris means law and prudentia means
knowledge. Therefore jurisprudentia means ‘knowledge of law’. In this sense
jurisprudence must comprise all subjects which directly or indirectly treat science of law.
I.e. No subject in the world exist which is apart from jurisprudence every subject is
included in jurisprudence.
 Paton one of the great English jurist says in his book, it is very difficult to decide from
which angle we have to view jurisprudence. Jurisprudence is used as synonym of word
law when we talk about medical jurisprudence. According to Paton jurisprudence is study
of law not of any one country but of the general notions of law itself. I.e. labor laws,
child protection etc.
 If we look at the writing of eminent jurists for the definition of jurisprudence in most
cases no satisfactory definition of jurisprudence is found.
 Bentham defines jurisprudence as “The art of being methodically ignorant of what
everybody knows”. ‘Methodically ignorant” means there is process for proving guilt on
a person which almost everyone is ignorant of as police officers know few laws and if
you fall within their limited knowledge of laws FIR is lodged against you. Bentham
assumes that everybody knows jurisprudence, which is not a fact. He thinks that making
law blindly on the basis of one or two instances is blind introduction of law into society.
The study of jurisprudence means you have had history of that particular action. i.e.
Murder. Every law that we have today in form has a history as in past times there was no
CCTV photo age or other modern means of recording evidence, eye-witness or someone
who saw the victim or on the basis of doubt you used to accuse someone; were used as
proof but in modern world we have plenty of resources by which we monitor the moment
of people.
 Austin defines jurisprudence as “the philosophy of positive law”. Positive law means
man made laws. Every man made laws has reasoning and history, it is an educated
response where you create certain laws. Austin never defined jurisprudence, he always
defined its scope because he dragged philosophy into jurisprudence. In fact word
philosophy used by him is bit misleading.
 Salmond and Fitzgerald defines jurisprudence as the name given to certain types of
investigation into law, an investigation of an abstract, general and theoretical nature
which seeks to lay bare the essential principles of law and legal system. I.e. investigation
into law: if under any country’s law you are a criminal which has attracted you or your
client, you will go into the basis of that law that how did it affect me or my client.
Abstracts are things which we did not know earlier or we did not had any precedents for
them or when facts of the case does not match our civil or criminal justice system
because there are certain loop holes in them. Earlier many things were abstract in nature
so far law was concerned as to how we should bring them into law. General abstract is
the one which applies to the nature and theoretical abstract is the one which defines its
theory. Salmond says jurisprudence in the generic and primary sense includes the entire
body of English legal doctrine.
 Ulpian defines jurisprudence as “The observation of things, human and divine, the
knowledge of the just and the unjust”. I.e. it is observation of things which are human or
of worldly nature and the divine which means a higher authority or entity for Muslims its
Allah for Christians its God, etc. This definition covers all objects and observation
relating to living things and non-living things, human and natural; here the natural means
tress, animals etc. This definition also lead us nowhere.
 Holland defines jurisprudence as in a very concise and meaningful way. According to
him jurisprudence is the formal science of positive law. This means that on the basis of
human reasoning you made certain laws and then gave it a form by applying it in the
society. Holland meant that study should not be about detailed provisions of law but only
about the basic principles. Detailed provisions means; history. Ethics and emotions
should be separated by law. You should introduce law in a bare form in the society for
 example the punishment of the theft is this not the details about its history and factors.
But it is very important to read out the history of law. According to Holland study of
natural law is not the theme of our study only the basics of positive laws. Defining
jurisprudence is like interpreting poetry where everyone has different ways to define it.

50 lectures on jurisprudence.
 The word jurisprudence is derived from the Latin word jurisprudentia. We find that it is
made up of two words Juris means legal and prudentia means knowledge. The words
jurisprudence signifies legal knowledge. The Oxford dictionary defines jurisprudence as
“the knowledge of or skill in law”. The legal meaning of word jurisprudence is elusive
(not clear). Finch and many other authors have opinion that word jurisprudence cannot
be defined with precision (accuracy).
 Others such as Vinogradoff & Olivecrona argue that definition of jurisprudence can
only be attempted by a thinker after he understands and digests the vast plethora of the
basis of law. I.e. when you study whole law and reasoning of it only then you may be
able to attempt the definition of jurisprudence.
 Vinogradoff argues that definition given at the beginning of a course of study may
impose on students, who have only vague (unclear) ideas at this stage, patterns of thought
which they tend to accept passively (inactively). This means that when you are unaware
about any fact or knowledge and someone throws information at you, you will tend to
accept it. Earlier in time people used to send Quranic verses to people throw text
messages later on they were banned as everyone didn’t know whether the verses were
correct or not or they were in the correct form or not. They were banned.
 Olivecrona proposed “Before a definition can be reached, the facts must be analyzed”.
This means that before you come to the conclusion you must analyze the facts.
 Jurists who have explained jurisprudence are not in agreement over the nature and scope
of the word. Jurisprudence is shaped, influenced and interpreted by the affiliation
(School, belief system), allegiances (loyalties) and ideology (Sect) of the author.
 For example if we will see concept of jurisprudence to a 17th century philosopher and a
modern day jurists it will be totally different.

Important definition of Jurists.

 John Salmond “ Jurisprudence is the name given to a certain type investigation into law,
an investigation of an abstract, general and theoretical which seeks to lay bare the
essential principles of law and legal system”.
 Dr. MJ.Sethna “Jurisprudence is the study of fundamental legal principles, including
their philosophical (reasoning), historical and sociological bases (society evolves over
time) and an analysis of legal concepts”.
 H.F.Jolowicz “Jurisprudence is a general theoretical discussion about law and its
principles, as opposed to the study of actual rules of law”. Actual rules of law means the
bare Act which tells the punishment and offense. Whereas, jurisprudence defines the
human reasoning behind that law.
 Carleton Kemp Allen “Jurisprudence is the scientific synthesis of the law’s essential
principles”.
 Jerome hall “Jurisprudence includes the search for ultimate conceptions in terms of
which all legal knowledge can be significantly expressed” Provides concepts for legal
knowledge.
 Ulpian “the knowledge of things divine and human, the knowledge of the just and
unjust” divine means natural law and it has to deal with the moral obligations. Moral
obligations give way to legal obligations.
 Karl llewellyn “Any careful (conscious) and sustained (persistent) thinking about any
phase of things legal (election times, elections laws are in discussion), if the thinking
seeks to reach beyond the practical solution of an immediate problem in hand”.
 Roscoe Pound “A consideration of the ethical and social merits of legal rules”. This
means that you will make rule for the betterment of the society.
 Earlier law was the part of philosophy

Characteristics of jurisprudence.
1. It is an investigation into law. ‘
2. It is an investigation of an abstract and theoretical nature. Some of the abstractions
studied under jurisprudence are right, duty, intention, ownership, possession, titles,
obligations, legal principles.
3. The purpose of the investigation is to understand the principles of law and the legal
system and to synthesize (unite) these legal principles.
4. The fundamental principles of law studied under jurisprudence entail a ‘general’
theoretical discussion. Jurisprudence does not deal with the actual study of the various
‘specific’ rules of law. Jurisprudence is a particular method of study, not of the law of
one country but of the general notion of law itself. Salmond has contended that
jurisprudence does not comprise a set of rules, is not derived from authority and is
without direct practical application.
5. The study of the fundamental legal principles in jurisprudence also includes the study of
the philosophical, historical, analytical and sociological components of the law.
Jurisprudence concerned with a variety of ‘peripheral’ matters outside the traditional
boundaries of legal study such as morality, sociological, political ideology, philosophy,
nature of justice etc.
6. Varied definition of jurisprudence are rooted in the varied complexities of the previous
eras. It is an important characteristics of jurisprudence that each generation of definition
stands on the shoulders of its predecessors (ancestors).
7. To a very large extent, jurisprudence seeks as an end result the achievement of ‘justice’.