Objectives:
Any academic discipline, worthy of the name, must develop in the student the capacity for
critical thought. Legal education needs to teach both law and its context- social, political and
theoretical.
At the heart of legal enterprise is the concept of law. Without deep understanding of this
concept neither legal practice nor legal education can be a purposive activity.
This course in
Jurisprudence is designed, primarily, to induct students into a realm of questions concerning
nature of law. Therefore, the first part of the course is concerned with important questions like,
what is law, what are the purposes of law?, the relationship between law and justice and the like.
The second part is concerned with the important sources of law. The emphasis is on important
issues concerning law with reference to ancient and modern Indian Legal Thought.
One important branch of Jurisprudence consists in analysis of legal concepts.
The law of
contract and tort is concerned with different rights which one person may have against another.
Jurisprudence, on the other hand, studies the meaning of the term
“rights” in the abstract and
seeks to distinguish various kinds of rights which are in theory possible under a legal system.
Similarly, it investigates other legal concepts and tries to build up a general and more
comprehensive picture of each concept as a whole. This course is designed primarily on English
model but native India Orientation is given wherever possible.
Course contents:
UNIT-I
Meaning and nature of ‘Jurisprudence’
Purpose and value of Jurisprudence -Schools of Jurisprudence: Natural law, Imperative Theory, Legal Realism, Historical School, Sociological School.
UNIT -II
Functions and purpose of law, questions of law, fact and discretion
Justice and its kinds
Civil and Criminal Administration of Justice
Theories of Punishment and Secondary functions of the Court.
UNIT - II
Sources of Law: Legislation, Precedent and Custom – A Comparative study
UNIT -IV
Legal Concepts: Right and Duty, Kinds,
Meaning of Right in its wider sense;
Possession: Idea of Ownership, kinds of Ownership,
Difference between Possession and Ownership;
Nature of Personality, Status of the Unborn, Minor, Lunatic, Drunken and Dead Persons.
UNIT-V
Liability: Conditions for imposing liability – Wrongful act: Damnum Sine Injuria, causation,mens rea, intention, malice, negligence and recklessness, strict liability, vicarious liability, obligation.
Substantive Law and Procedural Law.
Prescribed Books:
Fitzgerald, Salmond on Jurisprudence, (Bombay: Tripathi, 1999).
Dias, R. W.M,Jurisprudence, (Delhi: Aditya Books, 1994)
Reference Books:
W. Friedman ,Legal Theory, (New Delhi: Universal, 1999)
V. D. Mahajan, Jurisprudence and Legal Theory, (Lucknow; Eastern, 1996 Reprint)
Paton ,G. W., Jurisprudence, ELBS, ( Oxford, 1972)
Bodenheimer ,Edgar, Jurisprudence, (Harvard University Press, 1974) (Revised Edition)