Jurisprudence Notes | B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Semester 6 | SPPU | munotes

Contents

Module 01 Introduction to Jurisprudence

1. What Jurisprudence Means 1
2. The Nature of Jurisprudence 5
3. The Scope of Jurisprudence 8
4. Why Jurisprudence Is Studied 11
5. What Law Is 14
6. The Definitions of Law 18
7. Law as a Normative Order 23
8. Sanctions 26
9. The Functions of Law 29
10. The Purposes of Law 32
11. The Classification of Law 35
12. Public Law and Private Law 38
13. What Justice Means 41
14. The Kinds of Justice 44
15. Justice According to Law, and Equity 48
16. Law and Morality 52
17. Legal Wrongs and Moral Wrongs 56
18. Positive Law and Positive Morality 60

Module 02 Sources of Law

1. What a Source of Law Is 63
2. Formal and Material Sources of Law 66
3. Convention as a Source of Law 69
4. What a Custom Is 73
5. Kinds of Custom 77
6. General and Local Custom 81
7. The Essentials of a Valid Custom: Antiquity, Continuity and Peaceable Enjoyment 85
8. The Essentials of a Valid Custom: Reasonableness, Certainty, Consistency and Obligatory Force 89
9. Custom in the Indian Courts 94
10. Trade Usage and Conventional Custom 99
11. Puchta on Custom and the State 103
12. What Legislation Is 106
13. Supreme Legislation 110
14. Subordinate and Delegated Legislation 113
15. The Merits and Demerits of Legislation 117
16. Codification of Law 121
17. Legislation, Precedent and Custom: A Comparative Study 125
18. What a Precedent Is 130
19. The Declaratory Theory, and Whether Judges Make Law 134
20. The Doctrine of Stare Decisis 138
21. Precedent as a Source of Law in India 142
22. Kinds of Precedent 147
23. Ratio Decidendi 151
24. How to Find the Ratio of a Case 155
25. Obiter Dicta 159
26. Prospective Overruling 163
27. What Destroys or Weakens the Binding Force of a Precedent 167
28. Distinguishing and Overruling 171
29. Per Incuriam and Sub Silentio 175
30. The Merits and Demerits of Precedent 179
31. Public Interest Litigation, Juristic Writing and Equity as Sources 183

Module 03 Natural Law Theories and Revival of Natural Law

1. The Central Notion of Natural Law 187
2. The Basic Tenets of Natural Law 191
3. Natural Law in the Greek Period 195
4. Natural Law in the Roman Period 199
5. Natural Law in the Christian and Medieval Periods 202
6. Aquinas and the Four Kinds of Law 206
7. Natural Law in the Renaissance and the Reformation 211
8. The Social Contract Theory 217
9. Natural Law in the Modern Period 221
10. Fuller and the Inner Morality of Law 226
11. Natural Law in Indian Law 231

Module 04 Legal Positivism

1. What Legal Positivism Is 235
2. Bentham and the Principle of Utility 239
3. Austin's Command Theory of Law 243
4. Austin's Sovereign, and the Criticism of the Command Theory 247
5. Hart's Concept of Law 251
6. Hart's Rule of Recognition and the Hart Debates 256
7. Kelsen's Pure Theory of Law 261
8. The Grundnorm 265
9. Bentham, Austin, Kelsen and Hart Compared 269

Module 05 Sociological, Realist, Historical Schools of Law and Critical Legal Studies

1. What a School of Jurisprudence Is 273
2. The Rise of the Sociological School 277
3. The Basic Tenets of the Sociological School 280
4. Roscoe Pound and Social Engineering 284
5. Pound's Scheme of Interests 289
6. Ihering, Duguit and Ehrlich 293
7. The Basic Tenets of the Realist School 298
8. The American Realist School 302
9. The Scandinavian Realist School 307
10. Holmes, Gray and Cardozo: the Forerunners 312
11. Llewellyn and Frank: Rule Sceptics and Fact Sceptics 316
12. The Basic Tenets of the Historical School 320
13. Savigny and the Volksgeist 324
14. Maine: From Status to Contract 328
15. Feminist Legal Theory 332
16. The Schools of Feminist Legal Theory 336
17. Critical Legal Studies, and Critical Race Theory 340

Module 06 Concept of Person, Right and Duties

1. What a Legal Person Is 344
2. Natural and Artificial Persons 348
3. The Legal Status of an Animal 352
4. The Legal Status of a Dead Person 356
5. The Legal Status of an Unborn Person 360
6. The Legal Status of a Minor 364
7. The Legal Status of a Person of Unsound Mind and of a Drunken Person 369
8. Corporation Sole and Corporation Aggregate 374
9. The Characteristics and Advantages of Incorporation 378
10. The Theories of Corporate Personality 382
11. What a Legal Right Is 386
12. The Elements of a Legal Right 389
13. The Characteristics of a Legal Right 393
14. Duties, and the Correlation of Rights and Duties 397
15. The Kinds of Duty 401
16. Perfect and Imperfect, Positive and Negative Rights 405
17. Rights in Rem and Rights in Personam 409
18. Proprietary and Personal Rights, Inheritable and Uninheritable 413
19. Rights in Re Propria and Rights in Re Aliena 417
20. Primary and Secondary, Legal and Equitable, Vested and Contingent Rights 421
21. The Theories of Rights: Will, Interest and Gray 426
22. Hohfeld's Scheme of Jural Relations 430
23. Jural Correlatives and Jural Opposites 434
24. Liberty, Power, Immunity and Capacity in Practice 438

Module 07 Concepts of Ownership, Possession and Title

1. What Ownership Is 442
2. Austin on Ownership 446
3. The Characteristics of Ownership 449
4. Corporeal and Incorporeal Property 452
5. Real and Personal, Movable and Immovable Property 455
6. The Kinds of Ownership 459
7. Encumbrances: Lease, Servitude, Security and Trust 463
8. The Modes of Acquiring Ownership 468
9. The Modes of Acquiring Property 471
10. What Possession Is 475
11. Corpus and Animus: The Two Elements of Possession 479
12. Possession in Fact and Possession in Law 482
13. Corporeal and Incorporeal Possession 486
14. Mediate and Immediate Possession 489
15. The Modes of Acquiring Possession 492
16. Why Possession Is Protected 497
17. Possessory Remedies and Adverse Possession 501
18. Possession and Ownership Distinguished 505
19. Title: Original and Derivative 508
20. Agreements as Titles: Their Importance, Kinds and Validity 512

Module 09 Obligations and Liability

1. What an Obligation Is 516
2. Simple and Solidary Obligations 519
3. Perfect and Imperfect Obligations 523
4. The Sources of Obligations 526
5. Liability: What It Is, and the Conditions for Imposing It 530
6. The Wrongful Act: Acts, Omissions, Circumstances and Consequences 535
7. Mens Rea: The Guilty Mind 540
8. Intention and Motive 544
9. Malice, Attempts and Necessity 549
10. Damnum Sine Injuria 555
11. Injuria Sine Damno 559
12. Negligence: What It Is 563
13. Negligence and Recklessness 567
14. The Theories of Negligence: Subjective and Objective 573
15. Damage, Causation and Remoteness 578
16. When the Law Does Not Ask for Intention 582
17. Strict Liability: The Rule in Rylands v. Fletcher 587
18. Exceptions to Strict Liability 592
19. Absolute Liability 596
20. Strict Liability: The Theory, Mistake and Accident 600
21. Vicarious Liability: Basis and Justification 606
22. Other Relations that Attract Vicarious Liability 610
23. Vicarious Liability of the State 613
24. Corporate Criminal Liability 617
25. Civil and Criminal Justice: The Two Branches Compared 621
26. The Measure of Liability, and Vicarious Responsibility in Civil and Criminal Law 627