Jurisprudence

Jurisprudence, also known as legal theory or legal science, is the philosophy of law. As a field of knowledge, it applies philosophical methods to legal questions, such as what the law is or how it ought to be.

Evidence of jurisprudential thought can be found in the writings of ancient philosophers, including Confucius (c. 551 – c. 479 BCE), Aristotle (384–322 BCE), and St Augustine (354–430 CE), who wrote broadly on moral and political philosophy. Among the oldest conceptions of law are natural law theories, instrumental theories of law, and law as reflective of social norms and custom. Contemporary mainstream academic jurisprudence traces its origin to the early 17th century and the Age of Enlightenment, which saw empiricist philosophers such as Hobbes, Hume, Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau rejecting religious conceptions of law and developing early concepts of the rule of law, justice, and constitutionalism.

By the twentieth century, the legal positivism of H. L. A. Hart and Hans Kelsen had become the dominant focus of jurisprudence, with analytical jurisprudence seeking to develop a general jurisprudential concept of law via the methods of analytic philosophy. Scholars of general jurisprudence inquire into the question of what the law is. Other legal theorists seek to address particular philosophical questions relating to the law, including the determination of valid laws and legal systems; the nature of legal norms, values, and doctrine; and the relationship between law and economics, ethics, history, sociology, and political philosophy.