The science or philosophy of law. As with philosophy generally, jurisprudence has concerned itself not only with what is, but what ought to be, with inevitably an ideological dimension. It has some claim to be regarded as a science of law, in that it seeks to ascertain regularities in human behaviour: judicial behaviourists claim good success rates in predicting the outcome of legal decision-making.
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence (or legal theory, or legal philosophy—the terms are often used synonymously in English) hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, and of legal institutions. The normative side of jurisprudence is part of moral and political philosophy, and includes questions of whether we should obey the law, on what grounds law-breakers might properly be punished, the proper uses and limits of regulation, etc. (These are also central questions of moral and political philosophy.)
Etymology
The Latin word juris is the genitive form of jus meaning "law." So, 'juris' means "of law" or "legal." In particular, 'juris' refers to oral legal tradition and to functional applications of law, to and in particular sets of facts and circumstances.
History of jurisprudence
Jurisprudence already had this meaning in Ancient Rome, even if at its origins the discipline was a monopoly of the College of Pontiffs (Pontifex), which detained an exclusive power of judgement on facts, being the only experts (periti) in the jus of traditional law (mos maiorum, a body of oral laws and customs verbally transmitted "by father to son").
Their sentences were supposed to be simple interpretations of the traditional customs, but effectively it was an activity that, apart from formally reconsidering for each case what precisely was traditionally in the legal habits, soon turned also to a more equitative interpretation, coherently adapting the law to the newer social instances. The law was then implemented with new evolutive Institutiones (legal concepts), while remaining in the traditional scheme.
Under the Roman Republic, schools of law were created, and the activity constantly became more academic.
Modern jurisprudence
Influential positions in jurisprudence include legal positivism, natural law theory and legal interpretivism.
Positivism
Positivism simply means that the law is something that is "posited": laws are validly made in accordance with socially accepted rules. Laws may seek to enforce justice, morality, or any other normative end, but their success or failure in doing so does not determine their validity. Providing a law is properly formed, in accordance with the rules recognized in the society concerned, it is a valid law, whether or not it is just by some other standard.
Another principle is that law is nothing more than a set of rules to provide order and governance of society. No legal positivist, however, argues that it follows that the law is therefore to be obeyed, no matter what.
Natural law reasoning
In contrast, natural law is closely associated with morality and, in historically influential versions, with the intentions of God. To oversimplify its concepts somewhat, natural law theory attempts to identify a moral compass to guide the lawmaking power of the state. Notions of an objective moral order, external to human legal systems, underlie natural law. Natural law is sometimes identified with the slogan that "an unjust law is no law at all", but as John Finnis, the most important of modern natural lawyers has argued, this slogan is a poor guide to the classical Thomist position.
Other natural law theorists, notably Lon L. Thus, law has an internal morality that goes beyond the social rules by which valid laws are made.
Comparisons
Sophisticated positivist and natural law theories sometimes resemble each other more than the above descriptions might suggest, and they may concede certain points to the other "side". Identifying a particular theorist as a positivist or a natural law theorist sometimes involves matters of emphasis and degree, and the particular influences on the theorist's work.
Analytic and normative jurisprudence
Jurisprudential theory is usually divided into two major modes of analysis: analytic jurisprudence, which studies what law "is," and normative jurisprudence, which studies what law "ought to be." Jurisprudence can also refer to case law in common law, the body of law that is established through decisions of a particular court or court system.
The most important questions of analytic jurisprudence are: What is a law?
Normative jurisprudence considers what law ought to be, what values are important and looks at questions of morality. Important questions of normative jurisprudence are these: What is the proper function of law?
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