What Is the Definition of Law Given by Different Jurists

Later in the 20th century, H. L. A. Hart attacked Austin for his simplifications and Kelsen for his fiction in The Concept of Law. [54] Hart argued that the law is a system of rules divided into primary (rules of conduct) and secondary (rules that allow public servants to administer the primary rules). The secondary rules are then divided into jurisprudence rules (to settle disputes), amendment rules (which allow laws to be changed) and recognition rules (which identify laws as valid). Two of Hart`s students continued the debate: in his book Law`s Empire, Ronald Dworkin attacked Hart and the positivists for their refusal to treat law as a moral issue. Dworkin argues that the law is an «interpretive concept»[37] that obliges judges to find the most appropriate and equitable solution to a dispute, taking into account their constitutional traditions. Joseph Raz, on the other hand, defended the positivist view and criticized Hart`s approach to the «soft social thesis» in The Authority of Law.

[38] Raz argues that the law is an authority, identifiable by purely social sources and without reference to moral reasoning. In his view, any categorization of rules beyond their role as authoritative instruments of mediation should be left to sociology rather than jurisprudence. [55] John Austin`s definition of law states: «Law is the set of rules established by a man as politically superior or sovereign over men as political subjects.» Therefore, this definition defines the law as a set of rules to be followed by all, regardless of their stature. But after all, what is a law? […] When I say that the purpose of laws is always general, I mean that the law considers subjects en masse and actions in an abstract way and never a specific person or action. […] From this point of view, we can immediately see that we can no longer ask who should legislate, since these are acts of general will; nor if the prince is above the law, since he is a member of the state; nor whether the law can be unjust, since no one is unjust to himself; nor how we can be both free and subject to the laws, since they are only registers of our will. Contract law concerns enforceable commitments and can be summed up in the Latin expression pacta sunt servanda (agreements must be respected). [199] In common law systems, three key elements are required for the formation of a contract: offer and acceptance, consideration and intention to establish legal relationships. In Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Company, a medical company announced that its new miracle drug, Smokeball, would cure people`s flu, and if not, buyers would receive £100. Many people have sued for their £100 when the drug didn`t work. Fearing bankruptcy, Carbolic argued that the announcement should not be understood as a serious, legally binding offer. It was an invitation to treat, a simple puff, a gadget.

But the Court of Appeal concluded that Carbolic had made a serious offer to a reasonable man, which was underlined by his reassuring statement: «£1,000 is deposited». Similarly, people had considered the offer well by addressing the «obvious disadvantages» of using a defective product. «Read the ad the way you want and run it the way you want,» Lord Justice Lindley said, «here is a clear promise expressed in language that is completely unambiguous.» [200] Freedom of expression, freedom of association, and many other individual rights allow people to assemble, discuss, criticize, and hold their governments accountable, forming the basis of a deliberative democracy. The more people care about how political power is exercised over their lives and are able to change it, the more acceptable and legitimate the law becomes to the people. The best-known institutions of civil society include economic markets, for-profit businesses, families, trade unions, hospitals, universities, schools, charities, debate clubs, non-governmental organizations, neighborhoods, churches and religious associations. There is no clear legal definition of civil society and the institutions it encompasses. Most institutions and bodies that attempt to draw up a list of institutions (such as the European Economic and Social Committee) exclude political parties. [168] [169] [170] Civil law is the legal system used today in most countries of the world.

In civil law, the sources recognized as authoritative are mainly legislation – especially codifications in constitutions or laws adopted by the government – and customary law. [83] Codifications date back millennia, with an early example being the Babylonian Codex Hammurabi. Modern civil law systems derive essentially from legal systems promulgated by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I in the 6th century and rediscovered by Italy in the 11th century. [84] Roman law at the time of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire was highly procedural and lacked a professional legal class. [85] Instead, a lay judge, iudex, was chosen to rule. Decisions were not systematically published, so that any case law that developed was obscured and almost unrecognized. [86] Each case should be redecided from state laws, reflecting the (theoretical) insignificance of judges` decisions for future cases in today`s civil justice systems. From 529 to 534 A.D.

J.-C. The Byzantine emperor Justinian I codified and consolidated Roman law, so that only one-twentieth of the mass of legal texts of the past remained. [87] This corpus became known as the Corpus Juris Civilis. As one legal historian wrote, «Justinian consciously looked back at the golden age of Roman law and sought to bring it back to the peak it had reached three centuries earlier.» [88] The Justinian Codex remained in force in the East until the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Western Europe, on the other hand, relied on a mixture of Theodosian codices and Germanic customary law until the Justinian codex was rediscovered in the 11th century and researchers at the University of Bologna used it to interpret their own laws. [89] Civil codifications closely based on Roman law spread throughout Europe, as well as some influences of religious laws such as canon law, until the Enlightenment; In the 19th century, the France with the Civil Code and Germany with the Civil Code modernized their legal systems. Both codes have strongly influenced not only the legal systems of continental European countries (e.g. Greece), but also the Japanese and Korean legal traditions.

[90] [91] Today, countries with civil justice systems range from Russia] and Turkey to most Central and Latin American countries. [92] Answer: It was Hans Kelsen who proposed «pure legal theory.» Pure legal theory asserts that the law does not try to describe what must happen, but defines rules to which the individual must adhere. He notes that law is a «normative science.» This definition consists of three important parts. First, the law is a means of social control. Second, the law is supposed to serve the purposes of society. Third, the law, by its very nature, is coercion. Sociology of law is a diverse field of study that studies the interaction of law and society and straddles jurisprudence, philosophy of law, social theory, and more specialized topics such as criminology. [235] The institutions of social construction, social norms, dispute resolution, and legal culture are key areas of study in this field of knowledge. The sociology of law is sometimes considered a sub-discipline of sociology, but its links to the academic discipline of law are equally strong, and it is best seen as a transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary study focused on the theorization and empirical study of legal practices and experiences as social phenomena. In the United States, the field is generally referred to as Law and Society Studies; in Europe, we speak more often of studies in social law. At first, lawyers and legal philosophers were suspicious of the sociology of law.