Dr.

Sujata Bali,
Assistant Professor,
College of Legal Studies,
UPES, Dehradun
sbali@ddn.upes.ac.in
 Philosophical School
/Natural School


Law is the will of God/Supreme

Power expressed in his commands
revealed to man through his reason.
Example:
Human Rights
 Analytical/Imperative/
Positivist School

Law is the command of the Sovereign
(Political Superior).

Example:
Legislation
 Historical School

Law is found in the society, it
grows like language.

Example:
Customary Practices
 Sociological / Functional
School

Law is an instrument of social
engineering.

Example:
Socio-economic Laws
 Realist School

Law is what the courts declare to be
the Law.

Example:
Judicial Legislation
Point of Natural Analytical Historical Sociological Realist
view school School School School School

1. What is Command of Command of Rules as What gets What

called law? Sovereign sovereign in found in maximum judges say
(God) the system the society, benefit for
maximum
people

2 . Nature of As it should As it is As it was As it should Logic,

the law be try to be experience
.

3. Force Fear of God Sanctions Social The hope of a The

behind Law Pressure better society authority
of courts

4. Source of Reason/Cho Legislation Custom Social Judgment

law sen Means Legislation
What is Law?

 “Nothing else than an ordinance of
reason for the common good, made by
him who has care of the community,
and promulgated."


St. Thomas Aquinas,

Summa Theologica.
“ ‘An embodiment of Reason’,
whether in the individual or the
community.” - Plato


A body of rules fixed and enforced by a
sovereign political authority.
John Austin, PROVINCE OF
JURISPRUDENCE DETERMINED


Law is a "system of rules.”

H.L.A. Hart,
The Concept of Law.
"The prohecies of what the courts
will do in fact, and
nothing more pretentious, are
what I mean by the law.”


Holmes, Oliver Wendell. "The Path of Law”

(1897) 10 Harvard Law Review 457.
 Law is an "authority" to
mediate people's interests.
RAZ, THE AUTHORITY OF LAW.


Law is an "interpretive concept"
to achieve justice.
Dworkin, Law's Empire.
 “Law is a system of rules and
guidelines which are enforced
through social institutions to
govern behavior.”


Jeoffrey Robertson,
Crimes against humanity.
 Thomas Hobbes ,
‘Leviathan’ (1651).


"Law is the formal glue that
holds
fundamentally disorganised
societies together."
Any Query?