What is Law

• Law is a system of rules usually enforced

through a set of institutions
• According to Salmond, the law may be
defined as, “The body of principles
recognised and applied by the State in the
administarion of justice”.
• Professor Goodhart defines law as, “Those
rules of conduct on which the existence of
the society is based and the violation of
which, in consequence, tends to invalidate
the existence of the society”.
• According to Rudolf Stammler, “Law
exists to bind together the community; it is
sovereign and cannot be violated with
impunity”.
• According to Paton, “There are two sides
of law; one side it is an abstract body of rules,
from other it is a social process for
compromising the conflicting interest of men”.
• Law may be described in terms of
legal order tacitly or formally
accepted by a community and it
consists of body of rules which that
community considers essential to its
welfare and which it is willing to
enforce by the creation of a specific
mechanism for securing compliance.
 Why Law
• Law affects everyday life and society in a variety
of ways.
• Contract law regulates everything from buying a
bus ticket to trading swaptions on a derivatives
market.
• Property law defines rights and obligations
related to transfer and title of personal and real
property, for instance, in mortgaging or renting a
home.
• Trust law applies to assets held for investment
and financial security, such as pension funds.
• Tort law allows claims for compensation when
someone or their property is injured or harmed.
• criminal law offers means by which the state
prosecutes and punishes the perpetrator If the
harm is criminalised in a penal code.
• Constitutional law provides a framework
for creating laws, protecting people's
human rights, and electing political
representatives.
• Administrative law relates to the activities
of administrative agencies of government.
• International law regulates affairs between
sovereign nation-states in everything from
trade to the environment to military
action.
• Law may be described in terms of
legal order tacitly or formally
accepted by a community and it
consists of body of rules which that
community considers essential to its
welfare and which it is willing to
enforce by the creation of a specific
mechanism for securing compliance.
• According to Sir Henry Maine, the word
law has come down to us in close
association with two notions, the notion of
order and the notion of force.
• According to Austin Law is a
command of sovereign which imposes
duty and which is backed by the
sanction
• Justice Holmes says: “Law is a statement
of the circumstances in which the public
force will be brought to bear upon men
through courts.”
Nature & Functions of Law
 Nature
• The institution of law can be analyzed in terms of
two basic concepts which are indispensable to an
understanding of its nature and objectives.
• These two basic concepts are order and justice.
• The concept of order implies the existence of
some measure of uniformity, continuity and
consistency in the opera of natural and social
process.
• The notion of disorder, on the other hand,
indicates the prevalence of discontinuity and
irregularity, an absence of intelligible patterns
which manifests itself in the occurrence of
unpredictable jumps from one state of affairs to
another.
• The term order can be used to
describe the formal structure of legal
systems, especially the propensity of
the law to employ general rules,
standards, and principles in
discharging its task of regulating
human affairs.
• As in nature, order plays a significant role
in the life of human beings. Most people
follow certain habits in the conduct of their
individual lives and organize their
activities and leisure time in a certain way.
• The human striving for order is , however,
often impeded by occasional and
sometimes thwarted by pervasive
manifestations of disorder.
• To control this kind of tendency of human
being law intervened in the life of human
being.
 Justice
• Justice concerns the proper ordering
of things and persons within a
society.
• In the words of Prof. Sidgwick: “ In
determining a nation’s rank in
political civilization, no test is more
decisive than the degree in which
justice as defined by law is actually
realized in its judicial administration”.
It is the notion of justice which directs our
attention to the fairness and
reasonableness of the rules,
principles and standards that are the
component parts of the normative edifice.
According to Aristotle,“Justice consists on
some sort of equality. Justice demands
that the things in this world shall be
equitably allotted to the members of this
community according to the principles of
proportionate equality”.
• John Rawls’ conception of justice is
composed of two cardinal principles:
1. Each person is to have an equal right to
the most extensive basic liberty
compatible with a similar liberty for
others;
2. Social and economic inequalities are to be
arranged so that they can reasonably be
expected to be everyone's advantage, and
in such a manner that the positions and
offices to which they attach are open to
all.
 Types of Justice
• Criminal justice
• Distributive justice
• Global justice
• Restorative justice
• Social justice
• Retributive justice
 Types of justice
1. Criminal justice is the system of,
practices, and organizations, used
by national and local governments,
directed at maintaining social
control, deter and controlling crime,
and sanctioning those who violate
laws with criminal penalties.
• Distributive justice concerns what is
just or right with respect to the allocation
of goods in a society. Thus, a community
whose individual members are rendered
their due would be considered a society
guided by the principles of distributive
justice. Often contrasted with procedural
justice, which is concerned with just
processes such as in the administration of
law, distributive justice concentrates on
just outcomes and consequences.
• Global justice is an issue in political philosophy
arising from the concern that "we do not live in a
just world." Many people are extremely poor,
while others are extremely rich. Many live under
tyrannical regimes. Many are vulnerable to
violence, disease, and starvation. Many die
prematurely. How should we understand and
respond to these facts? What do the inhabitants
of the world owe one another? What institutions
and what ethical standards should we recognise
and apply throughout the world? Three central
concerns — the scope of justice, distributive
justice, and institutions — structure the debate
about global justice.
• Restorative justice is commonly known
as a theory of criminal justice that focuses
on crime as an act against another
individual or community rather than the
state. The victim plays a major role in the
process and may receive some type of
restitution from the offender. Today,
however, "Restorative justice is a broad
term which encompasses a growing social
movement to institutionalize peaceful
approaches to harm, problem-solving and
violations of legal and human rights”.
• Social justice refers to the concept
of a society in which justice is
achieved in every aspect of society,
rather than merely the
administration of law. The term can
be amorphous and refer to
sometimes self-contradictory values
of justice. It is generally thought of
as a society which affords individuals
and groups fair treatment and a just
share of the benefits of society.
• Retributive justice is a theory of
justice that proportionate
punishment is a morally acceptable
response to crime, regardless of
whether the punishment causes any
tangible benefits.