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Jurisprudence
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 5
2023 Mar Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 5 Jurisprudence 2023 Mar 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 2023 Mar examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2023 Mar examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2023 Mar 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 80 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all five Units. (2) One essay type question and short note/problem is compulsory from each Unit. (3) Figures to the right indicate marks. (4) Answer should be written either in English or Kannada completely.
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.
Q1
Unit I
(a)Explain Natural Law Theory.[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the core claims of natural law theory (a higher law, known by reason, binding on rulers, a test of validity); classical natural law (Aristotle, Cicero, Aquinas's four kinds of law) and the natural rights version (Grotius, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau); its eclipse by positivism; its revival after 1945 (Radbruch's formula, Fuller's inner morality, Finnis's basic goods, Hart's minimum content); natural law in international law and human rights; its working in Indian constitutional law (A.K. Gopalan, 1950, and Maneka Gandhi, 1978; Minerva Mills, 1980); an assessment; a conclusion.
The core claims
Natural law theory makes four connected claims.
- There is a higher law. Beyond the law made by rulers there is a law of reason and morality.
- It is known by reason. Human beings can discover its principles by thinking about human nature and the common good.
- It binds rulers. Rulers and legislators are not free to make any law they please.
- It tests validity. A human law that seriously violates it is defective as law. In the strong form, an unjust law is no law at all.
Classical natural law
Aristotle distinguished natural justice, which has the same force everywhere, from legal justice, which depends on local enactment. Cicero, drawing on the Stoics, wrote that true law is right reason in agreement with nature, the same at Rome and at Athens.
St Thomas Aquinas gave the theory its most complete form. He described four kinds of law.
- Eternal law, God's plan for the whole universe.
- Natural law, the part of eternal law that human reason can grasp.
- Divine law, revealed in scripture.
- Human law, made by rulers, which must be derived from natural law.
A human law that departs from natural law, Aquinas said, is no longer law but a perversion of law.
The natural rights version
From the seventeenth century, natural law turned into a theory of natural rights, independent of theology. Grotius argued that natural law would bind even if God did not exist, and built the law of nations on it. Hobbes used it to support a strong sovereign. Locke argued that people have natural rights to life, liberty and property, and that government exists to protect them. Rousseau placed sovereignty in the general will of the people. These ideas shaped the American and French declarations of rights.
Eclipse and revival
In the nineteenth century, positivism pushed natural law aside. Bentham mocked natural rights, and Austin insisted that law and morality be kept separate.
The experience of Nazi Germany revived the theory after 1945.
- Gustav Radbruch, once a positivist, argued that a statute so unjust that it denies equality and justice altogether loses its character as law. This is known as Radbruch's formula.
- Lon Fuller argued that law has an inner morality. Its rules must be general, published, prospective, clear, consistent, possible to obey, stable, and applied as announced. A system that fails badly on these is not a legal system at all.
- John Finnis grounded law in basic human goods, such as life, knowledge and friendship, and in practical reasonableness.
- Even Hart, a positivist, accepted a minimum content of natural law. Every legal system must protect life, property and promises if a society is to survive.
Natural law in international law and human rights
Natural law supplied the foundation of international law, through Grotius. Its idea of rights that belong to every human being reappears in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. The trials of war criminals after 1945 also rejected the defence that the accused had merely obeyed the law of their State.
Natural law in Indian constitutional law
From positivism to fairness. In A.K. Gopalan v. State of Madras, 1950 AIR 27, the majority read "procedure established by law" in article 21 as meaning only procedure laid down by a valid enactment. It declined to import natural justice or due process. Twenty-eight years later, in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, 1978 AIR 597, the Court held that such a procedure must be "fair, just and reasonable". The shift from the first view to the second is a shift towards natural law.
Limits on the amending power. In Minerva Mills Ltd. v. Union of India, AIR 1980 SC 1789, the Forty-second Amendment had declared Parliament's amending power unlimited and beyond judicial review. The Supreme Court struck those clauses down, holding that Parliament cannot destroy the basic structure. Some principles bind even the highest law-maker, which is the central idea of natural law.
Assessment
Natural law theory gives a standard for judging law, explains human rights and limits tyranny. Its weakness is uncertainty: its content has varied with each thinker and age, and it can be claimed by anyone for any cause. Its lasting value is the reminder that legal validity is not the end of the inquiry. A lawyer must also ask whether the law is just.
Conclusion. Natural law theory holds that human law answers to a higher law of reason. It moved from the classical form of Aristotle, Cicero and Aquinas to the natural rights of Locke and Rousseau. It was eclipsed by positivism, and revived after 1945 in Radbruch, Fuller and Finnis. Its influence runs through international law and human rights. In India it shows in the move from Gopalan to Maneka Gandhi, and in Minerva Mills.
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