KSLU Solved Question Papers
Jurisprudence
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 5
2015 Dec Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 5 Jurisprudence 2015 Dec Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2015 Dec examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2015 Dec examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2015 Dec examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 13 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1Explain the nature and scope of jurisprudence.[16]
Answer
For full marks, cover: what jurisprudence is (the word and four definitions); its nature, discussed as a series of debates (is it a science; is it pure or social; descriptive or critical; universal or national; settled or open), with the views of Kelsen, Holmes and Pound; its scope, traced through the classical writers (Austin's general and particular jurisprudence; Holland's formal science; Salmond's three branches; Pound's sociological scope) and the modern fields (law and economics, feminist jurisprudence, critical legal studies, environmental and animal law); jurisprudence in Indian decisions that opened new fields (M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, 1986, liability; Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration, 1978, punishment and dignity; Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, 1997, gender justice); a summary table; a conclusion.
What jurisprudence is
The word comes from the Latin jurisprudentia, meaning knowledge of law. As a subject it is the study of law in general, rather than of the rules of a particular branch.
- Austin called it the philosophy of positive law.
- Holland called it the formal science of positive law.
- Salmond called it the science of the first principles of the civil law.
- Pound treated it as the science of law in its widest sense, including how law works as social control.
Each definition reflects the writer's view of what law is. That is why the nature and scope of the subject are themselves debated.
The nature of jurisprudence: five debates
1. Is it a science? It is a science in the sense of an ordered body of knowledge, reached by careful reasoning. It classifies legal ideas and studies their relations. It is not an experimental science, because its conclusions cannot be tested in a laboratory. Its writers also bring their own values to it.
2. Is it pure or social? Kelsen wanted a pure theory of law, free from ethics, politics and sociology. For him, jurisprudence studies only legal norms and how each is valid because a higher norm authorises it. Pound, by contrast, saw law as a social institution, to be studied for its effects. Most modern writers accept both: law has its own logic, but it also lives in society.
3. Is it descriptive or critical? Analytical writers describe the law as it is. Natural lawyers and reformers criticise it against standards of justice. Jurisprudence does both. A complete answer to "what is the law?" is incomplete without asking "is it just?"
4. Is it universal or national? Analytical jurisprudence looks for ideas common to all developed legal systems, such as right, duty and person. The historical school stresses that each people's law reflects its own history. Jurisprudence keeps both in view.
5. Is it settled or open? It is open. Holmes and the realists turned its attention to what courts actually do. Later movements added new questions. So jurisprudence grows as society raises new problems.
The scope of jurisprudence: the classical writers
Austin divided the subject into general jurisprudence, the principles common to mature legal systems, and particular jurisprudence, the study of one national system. For him, the proper subject was general jurisprudence, confined to positive law.
Holland limited it to the formal study of legal relations. It examined the form of rights and duties, not the content of particular rules.
Salmond described a wider science of law with three branches. Legal exposition states the law as it is. Legal history shows how it came to be. The science of legislation asks what it ought to be. Jurisprudence, for him, studies the first principles running through all three.
Pound widened the scope furthest. He included the interests law protects, the means by which it secures them, and its success or failure in practice.
The scope today: the modern fields
- Law and economics asks whether legal rules use resources efficiently, and how people respond to legal incentives.
- Feminist jurisprudence examines how law has treated women, and how apparently neutral rules may disadvantage them.
- Critical legal studies argues that law often reflects the interests of the powerful, and that its neutrality can be a mask.
- Environmental and animal law asks whether nature, animals and future generations can hold rights, and what duties people owe them.
So the scope of jurisprudence today covers legal theory, legal concepts, sources, justice, liability, and the place of law in society and nature.
India adds its own material to this scope. The idea of dharma, which bound even the king, is an early theory of the rule of law. The constitutional idea that every power is limited is another. So is the courts' work on public interest litigation. A student should study these Indian contributions alongside the Western schools.
Jurisprudence and the neighbouring disciplines
Because its scope is so wide, jurisprudence works alongside other subjects. Each contributes a different question.
- Ethics asks whether a law is just, which is the concern of natural law.
- History explains how a rule came to be, which is the method of the historical school.
- Sociology asks how law works in society and whose interests it serves.
- Political science studies the State, sovereignty and the making of law.
- Economics asks whether a legal rule uses resources well.
- Psychology helps explain why people obey law, a question the Scandinavian realists raised.
Jurisprudence draws on all of these, but its focus stays on law itself: its concepts, its validity and its purposes.
Why the nature and scope matter to a student
The debates about nature and scope are not idle. A student who knows that law has a moral side will read a statute critically, not only obediently. A student who knows that law works in society will ask whether a rule actually achieves its aim. And a student who knows the classical analysis of concepts will be able to argue a case where no statute speaks. The wider scope of modern jurisprudence is what lets courts meet new problems, as the decisions below show.
Jurisprudence opening new fields in India
A new rule of liability. In M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, AIR 1987 SC 1086, oleum gas leaked from a unit of Shriram Foods and Fertiliser Industries in Delhi in December 1985. The Supreme Court held that an enterprise engaged in a hazardous or inherently dangerous activity owes an absolute and non-delegable duty to the community. If harm results, it is liable without the exceptions that English law allowed. The Court built a new principle from the needs of an industrial society. That is jurisprudence at work in the field of liability.
Punishment and human dignity. In Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration, AIR 1978 SC 1675, a prisoner under sentence of death challenged his solitary confinement. The Supreme Court held that the Prisons Act did not permit solitary confinement of such a prisoner. It held that convicts are not, by conviction alone, stripped of all their fundamental rights. Krishna Iyer J. added that the aim of sentencing is to change the consciousness of the offender. The decision applied the theory of punishment and of rights to the life of prisoners.
Gender justice. In Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, AIR 1997 SC 3011, women's groups petitioned the Supreme Court after a social worker in a Rajasthan village was allegedly gang-raped. No Indian law dealt with sexual harassment at work. The Court read international conventions into articles 14, 15 and 21, and laid down binding guidelines until Parliament acted. The case shows feminist and international ideas entering Indian law through jurisprudential reasoning.
| Aspect | The debate or field | Leading names or Indian example |
|---|---|---|
| Nature: science | Ordered knowledge, not experiment | Salmond |
| Nature: pure or social | Norms alone, or law in society | Kelsen; Pound |
| Nature: open | Courts and new movements | Holmes; realists |
| Scope: classical | General and particular; three branches | Austin; Salmond |
| Scope: liability | New rules for new dangers | M.C. Mehta |
| Scope: punishment and rights | Dignity of prisoners | Sunil Batra |
| Scope: new fields | Gender, economics, environment | Vishaka |
Conclusion. Jurisprudence is the study of law in general: its nature, sources, concepts and purposes. Its nature is debated between science and philosophy, pure theory and social study, and description and criticism. It is best seen as an open, growing discipline. Its scope has widened from Austin's positive law to Salmond's three branches, Pound's social interests and the modern fields of economics, gender and the environment. M.C. Mehta, Sunil Batra and Vishaka show Indian courts using jurisprudence to open new ground.
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