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jurisprudence:jurisprudence-and-other-discipline

Jurisprudence Related with Other Disciplines

Jurisprudence calls upon other social studies to help it in its quest for deeper understanding. Sociology of law, for example, records the incarnation of spiritual values in social facts. Psychiatry and psychology inform jurisprudence about the complexities of the human personality. History records the functions that we have called upon the law to accomplish. Anthropology gives jurisprudence a view of the cultural values embedded in the diversity of the human race. Political science reflects broad national and international purposes. These related sciences, while indispensable, are not fully sufficient. They do not satisfy the jurisprudential urge for full intelligibility. They labor under the same difficulty as jurisprudence considered as the science of positive law; they begin and end in experience. Jurisprudence needs the help of sciences whose object is non-material. Thus, it is attracted to logic and mathematics.

Dean Roscoe Pond writes “Jurisprudence, ethics, economics, politics and sociology are distinct enough at the core, but shade out into each other. All the social sciences must be co-workers and emphatically all must be co-workers with jurisprudence.”

Raddiffle writes “Jurisprudence is a part of history, a part of economics and sociology, a part of ethics and a philosophy of life. Thus, it is an amalgam of a number of other disciplines interwoven together for the common good of the society.”

Justice McCredie stressed the indispensability of the study of other social sciences in the following words “There never was a time when the barrister had greater need of a wide culture and of a full acquaintance with history, with economics and with sociological science.”

Sometimes, terms like medical jurisprudence, architectural engineering jurisprudence and environment jurisprudence etc. are used. When used in this sense, the phrase refers to treatise dealing with that part of knowledge, which is useful in applying legal doctrines or principles related to medico-legal cases, architectural, or engineering or environment cases.

Jurisprudence and morality

Ethics as a branch of knowledge deals with human conduct and lays down the ideals of human behaviour. Law and morality are intimately related to each other. Laws are generally based on the moral principles of society. Both regulate the conduct of the individual in society.

According to Lord Lloyd, “Jurisprudence involves the study of general theoretical questions about the relationship of law to justice and morality and about the social nature of law.”

The celebrated Roman jurist, Ulpian defined jurisprudence as “the observation of things human and divine, the knowledge of the just and unjust”. The definition is too broad and might well apply to religion, ethics or philosophy.

Both law and morality serve to guide our behavior. Law accomplishes this primarily through sanction, if we disobey legal rules. Morality too involves incentives, i.e., bad acts may result in guilt and disapprobation and good acts may result in praise and rewards. The pull and push forces of the morals, having vital influence on our conduct.

In ancient India, the term ‘dharma’ connoted both law and morality. Law, it is pointed out, is not merely the command of the sovereign. It also represents the idea of right and wrong based on the prevalent morality of the people.

According to Gilchrist, “The individual moral life manifests itself in manifold ways. The state is the supreme condition of the individual moral life, for without the state, no moral life is possible. The state, therefore, regulates other organizations in the common interest. The state, however, has a direct function in relation to morality.”

Jurisprudence and psychology

Psychology as a branch of knowledge is concerned with the working of brain or mental faculty. It is the human mind, which controls human action. Hence, knowledge of psychology plays a dominant role in the study of criminology and penology. Criminologists make use of reformative techniques of punishment such as probation, parole, indeterminate sentence, admonition and pardon, etc. for the treatment of offenders according to their psychological traits.

The jurisprudential concepts such as negligence, intention, motive, mens rea recklessness, rashness etc., relate to the faculty of mind. Therefore, they form a, part of the study of psychology as also of the jurisprudence.

Jurisprudence and sociology

Jurisprudence includes the sociology of law. Both, sociology as well as the study of jurisprudence are concerned with regulation of human conduct in society. Therefore, the two are closely connected. The modern prison reforms and correctional services for the treatment of offenders have been created, keeping in view the sociological factors of the offenders.

Jurisprudence and politics

In view of Friedman, “jurisprudence is linked at one end with philosophy and at the other end with political theory.”

Politics deals with the principles of governmental organization. In a politically organized society, there exist rules, regulation and specific laws. Such laws provide as to what men may do and what they are prohibited to do.

Jurisprudence and philosophy

Cicero defines ‘jurisprudence’ as “the philosophical aspect of the knowledge of law.” As a philosophy, jurisprudence examines “whether the law is, as it ought to be.” Socio-philosophical jurisprudence takes into account, socio-philosophical principles, examines the actual legal principles and recommends improvements towards the ideal. Jurisprudence and history—History helps jurisprudence in knowing the origin and evolution of different legal concepts.

G W Paton observed, “Modern jurisprudence trenches on the fields of the social science and of philosophy; it digs into the historical past and attempts to create the symmetry of a garden out of the luxuriant chaos of conflicting legal systems.”

Jurisprudence and economics

Economics is the science of wealth and jurisprudence is the science of law. Economics studies the production and distribution of wealth. Law is responsible for establishing a fair distribution of wealth through enactment of laws. Economic factors are also responsible for the occurrence of crimes, particularly white-collar crimes. There are so many enactments dealing with banking, negotiable instruments, consumer protection, payments of wages, bonus, insurance, and debts, etc. They all aim to regulate one or the other economic activity of man in society.

About the Author

Adv. Sunil Sharma is a writer for about 25 years and has authored more than 40 books on Law.


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