What is “Law”?

It is possible to describe law as the body of official rules and regulations, generally found

in constitutions, legislation, judicial opinions, and the like, that is used to govern a society

and to control the behaviour of its members, so Law is a formal mechanism of social

control.

Legal systems are particular ways of establishing and maintaining social order.

 

Definition of law - Legal Positivism

John Austin (English

jurist born 1790)

"Province of

Jurisprudence

Determined"

"A rule laid down for the guidance of an intelligent being by an

intelligent being having power over him."

 

 

"A body of rules fixed and enforced by a sovereign political

authority."

Professor Hart

(Oxford Professor of

jurisprudence, born

1907)

"The Concept of Law"

(1961)

Hart defined law as a system of rules, a union of primary and

secondary rules,

Definition of law - Marxist theory

  Marxist theories of law generally define law as a tool of

oppression used by capitalists to control the proletariat.

 

Definition of law - Natural Law.

Plato (Greek

philosopher born 427

BC)

Aristotle (Greek

philosopher born 304

BC)

“An embodiment of Reason”, whether in the individual or the

community’.

St Thomas Aquinas

(Italian philosopher

born 1224)

"Summa Theologiae

"Nothing else than an ordinance of reason for the common

good, made by him who has care of the community, and

promulgated"

(Summary of

Theology)", Question

90, Art. 4

Definition of law - Legal Realism

Oliver Wendell

Holmes (American

judge and jurist born

1841)

"The Path of the Law"

in Collected Papers,

1920

"The prophecies of what the courts will do ... are what I mean

by the law,"

The Jurist and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., was born in 1841.  Oliver W. Holmes Jr. died in 1935. For information, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (a Physician and Author) was born in 1809 and died in 1894.

Karl Llewellyn

(American legal scholar

born 1893)

"The Bramble Bush"

1951

"What officials do about disputes,"

Lord Browne-

Wilkinson (Senior Law

Lord born 1930)

"‘The sum of the influences that determine decisions in courts

of justice."

Other definitions

Definition of Law - 

Max Weber

(German Sociologist

born 1954)

"Law…exist if it is externally guaranteed by the probability of

coercion (physical or psychological) to bring about conformity

or avenge violation, and is applied by a staff of people holding

themselves specially ready for that purpose."

Definition of law -

Thomas Hobbes

(English philosopher

born 1588)

Hobbes said of the role and function of law in his polemic

work ‘Leviathan’ (1651)

"Law is the formal glue that holds fundamentally disorganised

societies together."

Definition of law  -

Glanville Williams

“Learning the law”

"Law is the cement of society and also an essential medium of

change. Knowledge of law increases one’s understanding of

public affairs. Its study promotes accuracy of expression,

facility in argument and skill in interpreting the written word,

as well as some understanding of social values".