MEANING AND DEFINITION

OF LAW

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WHAT IS LAW?
 Centrally concerns with the problem of social order.
 Means of coexistence.
 If one fail to comply with the rules might be subjected
to social disapproval, one might be excluded from the
group or society.
 As society became more developed and more
complex, necessitate formal rules to live together in
orderly way.

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 So for the introductory purposes, when we speak about
the law in a democratic society we are thinking about the
rules of the government that how we live, deal and do
other business.
 And we are thinking about the rules that are backed by
coercive power of the state.
 We have to obey, if we don’t obey those rules we are
compel to pay fine, penalty, imprisonment or both.
Law can be defined as the system of rules which a
particular country or community recognizes as regulating
actions of its members and is enforceable by the
imposition of penalties, imprisonment or both.

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 Generally law can be described as a set of rules
developed over a long period of time which is
recognized as behavior regulating means of its members
in a particular country or community enforceable
through the imposition of penalties, imprisonment or
both.

3 MAIN POINTS TO REMEMBER

1. a set of rules
2. regulates interactions between people/parties
3. enforceable through sanction.

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 DEFINITION OF LAW

 Jurists and legal scholars have not arrived at a unanimous

definition of law.
 The problem of defining law is not new as it goes back
centuries.
 Some jurists consider law as a 'divinely ordered rule' or as
‘a reflection of divine reasons'.
 Law has also been defined from philosophical,
theological, historical, social and realistic angles.

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 Natural Law
Natural law is higher law which is not necessarily be
written but it governs the written law.
o Justice/Morality/Divine
Law/Immutable/Universal/Reason/Ethics etc
 Aristotle and Plato (Greek philosopher)

 An embodiment of Reason

 St Thomas Agustine

 Lex Injusta non est lex.(Un just law is not a law)

 St Thomas Aquinas (Italian philosopher)

 "Nothing else than an ordinance of reason for the

common good, made by him who has care of the
community, and promulgated"
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Rudolf Stammler
 Law is “sense of right” of a particular society.

Lon L. Fuller
 A morality

Positivism
Posited/Statute/Textual Understanding
John Austin (English jurist)
 Law is a commands of sovereign or superior being to an
inferior being and forced by sanctions.
Bentham
 “Greatest happiness of the greater number of the
people.”
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Professor Hart (Oxford Professor of jurisprudence)
 Hart defined law as a system of rules, a union of primary
and secondary rules
Hans Kelsen
 Conglomeration of Norms/Science

Historical School
Savigny
 Law is the popular manifestation of the people. (Custom)

Sociological School
Roscoe Pound and Jhering
 Law is the instrumentality to securing and protecting
variety of interest in the society.

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Duguit/Ehrlich (Social Solidarity)
 Law is found in the life of the people, law is found in the
activity of the people. Law need not be written it
regulates the complex mutual relationship of a society.
Karl Max
 Law was an instrument used by the wealthy class to
dominate and exploit the weaker and laboring class.

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William Black Stone (Legal Scholar/Practicing
Layer/Judge)
He was the first person who attempted to give
comprehensive meaning to law.
He has defined law as: “rule of conduct prescribed by the
supreme power in a state, commanding what is right and
prohibiting what is wrong”

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CONCLUDING REMARKS TO LAW
 System of rules
 Lays down standards to which we ought to conform

 Legal rule, moral rule and social convention

 In case of Failure to adhere to legal rules may result in a

penalty
 Law is never static it is always changing.

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 Thank You
Any Question

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