KSLU Solved Question Papers
Jurisprudence
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 5
2023 Sep Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 5 Jurisprudence 2023 Sep Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.
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The University does not publish an official answer key for this paper. The answers in this volume are model answers, written to show how a full-mark answer is built. They are a study aid, not an authority on what an examiner marked.
The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2023 Sep examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2023 Sep 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 Sep 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
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 the utility of Jurisprudence.[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: why the value of jurisprudence is doubted; its purpose (to explain the basic ideas, the sources and the ends of law); its value to the student, the practising lawyer, the judge, the legislator and society, each with an example; two Indian decisions that turned on jurisprudential ideas (Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, 2000; Animal Welfare Board of India v. A. Nagaraja, 2014); a fair word on its limits; a conclusion.
Why the question is asked
Students often ask what use jurisprudence is. It has no Act and no sections. It does not tell a client how long he has to file a suit. So it can look like theory for its own sake.
The answer is that every branch of law is built on ideas that no statute fully explains. Jurisprudence is the study of those ideas. Its value is indirect, but it reaches every case a lawyer handles.
The purpose of jurisprudence
The purpose of jurisprudence is threefold.
- To explain the basic ideas of law. It tells us what a right, a duty, a person, possession and ownership are, and how they relate to each other.
- To explain where law comes from. It studies custom, precedent and legislation as sources, and asks why each has authority.
- To ask what law is for. It studies justice, order and social welfare as the ends that law should serve.
Salmond saw its first purpose as analysis: stating the first principles of law clearly. Pound saw its larger purpose as making law serve society better. Both purposes give the subject its value.
Its value to the student
For a student, jurisprudence is the map of the whole law. Contract, tort, property and crime look like separate subjects. Jurisprudence shows that they share the same building blocks. Take rights in rem and in personam. A student who understands them sees why a buyer can sue only the seller, while an owner can sue the world. It also teaches him to define terms precisely and to reason step by step.
Its value to the practising lawyer
A lawyer constantly meets cases the statute did not foresee. He then argues from the nature of the legal idea in issue. Is this thing property? Is this body a person? Is this a right or only a liberty? These are questions of jurisprudence. A lawyer who knows the theory of precedent also knows how to find the ratio of a case, and how to distinguish an unfavourable one.
Its value to the judge
Judges use jurisprudence whenever the written law runs out. They must decide what a word like "person" or "property" covers in a new setting. They must weigh competing interests, as Pound taught. The theory of precedent also tells them when an earlier decision binds them and when it does not.
Its value to the legislator
A legislator who understands legal concepts drafts better laws. He can see whether a section creates a right, a power or a duty, and against whom. He can foresee how courts will read his words. The sociological school also teaches him to ask whether a law will actually work in society before he passes it.
Its value to society
Jurisprudence gives citizens a standard by which to judge the law. Natural law asks whether a rule is just. The sociological school asks whether it serves social needs. Without such standards, law could only be obeyed, never criticised or reformed.
Value shown in Indian decisions
Who can own property. In Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, Amritsar v. Som Nath Dass, AIR 2000 SC 1421, land had been entered in the revenue records in 1928 in the name of Guru Granth Sahib. About forty years later, the entry was challenged on the ground that Guru Granth Sahib was not a juristic person and could not hold property. The High Court agreed with the objectors.
The Supreme Court allowed the appeal. It held that Guru Granth Sahib, installed in a gurdwara or other public place of worship, is a juristic person and can hold property. Not every copy is a juristic person, just as not every idol is one. The whole dispute turned on the jurisprudential idea of legal personality.
Who has rights. In Animal Welfare Board of India v. A. Nagaraja, (2014) 7 SCC 547, the question was whether jallikattu and bullock cart races could continue in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. A Tamil Nadu Act of 2009 had sought to regulate them rather than ban them. The Supreme Court held that bulls cannot be used as performing animals for such events. It read five recognised freedoms of animals into the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960. It struck down the Tamil Nadu Act as repugnant to the central Act. The case shows the court working with the jurisprudential ideas of rights, duties and the status of animals.
Its limits, fairly stated
Jurisprudence does not replace the study of statutes and cases. It will not tell a client the limitation period or the court fee. Its schools also disagree, so it rarely gives one final answer. But that disagreement is itself useful. It shows the student that law involves choices, and that those choices can be examined and defended.
Conclusion. The purpose of jurisprudence is to explain the basic ideas of law, its sources and its ends. It gives a map to the student and arguments to the lawyer. It gives guidance to the judge, clarity to the legislator and a standard of criticism to society. Shiromani Gurudwara and Nagaraja show that real disputes turn on its concepts. Its value is indirect, but no part of the law works without it.
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