Sociological School of Jurisprudence
- Sociological jurisprudence is usually described as functional jurisprudence or jurisprudence of interests or jurisprudence of social engineering or experimental jurisprudence.
- The main concern of the sociological school of jurisprudence is social interest.
- According to this school, the law is an instrument of social progress.
- Sociological school of jurisprudence emphasizes the study of the effect of law and society on each other.
- The leading exponents of this school were:
- Auguste Compte
- Leon Duguit
- Sharing
- Elrich
- Roscoe Pound
AUGUSTE COMTE [1786-1857]:
- French philosopher
- Father of sociological school of jurisprudence.
- He termed the study of society as scientific positivism because according to him, an organization can progress according to the principles formulated based on observation and experiment.
Roscoe Pound [1870-1964]:
- Father of American sociological jurisprudence.
- Major works:
- Spirit of the common law (1921)An introduction to the philosophy of law (1922).Interpretation of legal history(1923).
- The contribution of Roscoe Pound to the sociological jurisprudence may be studied under the following heads:
The functional aspect of the law :
- Roscoe Pound stated that the function of law is to settle the conflicting interests of individuals in the community and harmonize their interrelations. He termed this as ‘Social – engineering’.
Theory of social engineering:
- Social engineering means to speed up the process of social order by making all possible efforts to avoid conflict of interests of individuals in society.
- He categorized various interests.
Jural postulates of Roscoue Pound:
- Jural means legal and postulates means assumptions.
- There are basic assumption for proper order and balance of society.
- These assumption are implied and not expressed from are called as jural postulates.
- Pound mentioned five jural postulates:
- No intentional aggression
- Benificial purpose
- Act in good faith.
- Act with due care
- Strict liability
- Criticism :
- Criticism on the term engineering which equates society to a factory like mechanism .
- Division of interest is not proper.
- LEON DUGUIT(1859-1928):
- French philosopher
- Propounded the theory of social solidarity
- Duguit theory is also based on the theory of Durkheim ‘Division of labour in society’
Definition and scope of medical jurisprudence
