DD: Law - An Overview

It is impractical to try and give a clear and concrete forever definition of law.
Multiple definitions are formed according to changing thought and need of the hour.

Classification of definitions:
1. Natural 

Most of the ancient definitions fall under this category - Ulpine, Cicero, Justinian's Digest etc. 

Ancient Hindu law considered law to be the command of God.

Prominent jurist Salmond defined law as “the body of principles recognized and applied by the State in the administration of justice.” That is to say, rules recognized and acted on by courts of justice.

To understand the law, one should know its purpose. And in order to ascertain the true nature of the law, one should go to the courts, not the legislature. (I.e. go to the people who interpret the laws, not the ones that write them.)

2. Positivistic 

"Law is the aggregate of rules set by man is politically superior or sovereign to men as politically subject." - Austin.

Kelsen came up with a pure theory of law:

o Legal norms are distinct from “is” norms of physical and natural sciences 

o Law doesn’t attempt to describe what actually occurs but only prescribes certain rules 

o All norms derive power from the ultimate norm called the grund norm. 

3. Historical

- Savigny

o Law is a matter of unconscious growth, found not made
o Not universal, varies with people and age
o Custom precedes legislature and is superior to it. Law should always conform to popular consciousness.
o Legislation is the last stage of law making and the lawyer or jurist more important than the legislator
- Henry maine – law in close association with the notion of order and of force.

4. Sociological

- Duguit – essentially and exclusively social fact
- Ihering – form of guarantee of the conditions of life of society, assured by the state’s power of constraint.
o One means of social control
o Serve social purpose
o Coercive
- Roscoe pound – instrument of social engineering in which conflicting pulls of political philosophy, economic interests and ethical values constantly struggled for recognition against the background of history, tradition and legal technique.
o A social institution to satisfy social wants 

5. Realistic- Defined in terms of judicial process

- Holmes: a statement of the circumstances in which public force will be brought to bear upon courts.

- Cardozo: a principle or rule of conduct established to justify a prediction with reasonable certainty that it will be enforced by the courts if its authority is challenged is a principle or rule of law.
- A mechanism of regulating the human conduct so that harmonious cooperation of its members increases and avoids ruin by coordinating conflicting interests of individuals and of society, which in turn enhances the potentialities of society as a whole.
o The state makes or authorizes to make or recognizes or sanctions rules called law.
o For these rules to be effective, there are sanctions behind them.
o These rules, called laws are made to serve some purpose, which maybe social or to serve the personal ends of some despot.

- Separate rules and principles are known as laws
o Prohibitive: requires negative conduct
o Mandatory: calls for affirmative act
o Permissive: neither requires nor forbids action, but allows certain conduct if the individual wishes to act.

- Effectiveness of law:
o Requiring damages to be paid for an injury due to disobedience
o Requiring one, in some instances, to complete an obligation he has failed to perform
o By preventing disobedience
o Administering punishment

- Law and the system through which it operates has developed over many centuries into the present combination of statutes, judicial decisions, custom and convention.