Jurisprudence Questions and Answers
100% Pass
Definition of jurisprudence: ✔✔* This is described as the philosophy or theory of law. It derives
from the Latin word, juries prudentia (which means to study
*Aquinas in 1809: "the principal and most perfect branch of ethics"
*It has been used as a mechanism to set limits to law and also to provide justification for its
means by being aware of its ends
Normative jurisprudence: ✔✔*This has already established what jurisprudence is, it aims to
understand the moral basis for law
*What the law ought to be
*It seeks to provide a theory which determines which is morally right
*What rights to we have?
*What rights are we ought to have?
*Cierco: "law is right reason in accordance with nature"
*Aquinas: "law is an order of reason serving the common good"
Analytical jurisprudence: ✔✔* This is the study of law at its most abstract level
,*This seeks to ask questions of what actually is the law? and what the relationship of law and
morality is?
*Looks at areas of legislating and judging
*Those who are analytical jurisprudists are typically legal positivists
*Kelsen: "Law is a unified hierarchy of norms"
*Hart: "law is the union of primary and secondary norms"
Sociological approaches: ✔✔*This is how law differs from or is related to other areas such as
economics or as a society as a whole
*Max Weber: "an order will be called law if it is externally guaranteed by the probability that
coercion, to bring about conformity or avenge violation, will be applied by a staff of people
holding themselves specially ready for that purpose"
Can there is a single conception of law?: ✔✔*it can be described as a meta-theory
*Like an apple: they have an essence defined by genus and differential
*Like a triangle: these exist, but never exist perfectly in reality, they are an archetype an ideal
Natural Law: ✔✔*This deals with what are valid legal rules or sources of law and is based on
the idea that the sources of law include a moral test of validity
,*Theorists like Aquinas and John Finnis have appealed to a higher authority if law because it is
determined by reason and is capable of producing just and fair laws which have moral authority
Legal positivism: ✔✔*Classical, there is no connection between law and morality
*only law enacted by government or the state have legal authority
*Modern, like Raz, there can be some link between morality and law but it is unnecessary to use
moral arguments to discover the law
Legal realism: ✔✔*Only the real word legal practices of judiciary influence and the
development of law, as judges determine the content of legal rights and duties according to
public policy and prevailing interests of the wider society rather than compliance with abstract
moral rules
Help with answering such questions: ✔✔(1) Explain what is law, not just a simple matter of
judicial precedent
(2) Address the idea of law in context, influenced and interpreted culturally, socially,
theologically, politically and historically significant
(3) Explain how these belong to certain distinctive schools of jurisprudence
(4) Mention examples or issues form the past or modern issues which illustrate the continuing
need for jurisprudence, like the permitting of torture or legalising euthanasia
, Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): ✔✔*His key work was Summa Theologica
*Core message of his work is that moral standards/moral law derives from the nature of the
world and human beings within it, natural law is "the ordinance of reason"
*Human beings have the capacity of reason which enables them to deduce right actions towards
the "common good"
*Laws must be reasonable, they must be directed towards the common good and not serve the
private interest of a few individuals, this means that a government which enacts unjust laws lacks
moral authority and surrenders any right to obedience
Thomas Aquinas 2: ✔✔*Aquinas pre-conditions for the enactment of a law: (1) made for the
common good (2) made by the whole people or by God's vice regent for the whole people who is
the monarch ruling for the divine right (3) promulgated
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) 2: ✔✔*Lex Aeterna (eternal law): this is timeless laws which
apply to the whole community or the universe, they are governed by God. Eternal law is not
knowable as we cannot know the theory of everything. For example, we do not know what the
sun is really like, we only have an imperfect idea of its nature gained by observing its effects on
Earth.
100% Pass
Definition of jurisprudence: ✔✔* This is described as the philosophy or theory of law. It derives
from the Latin word, juries prudentia (which means to study
*Aquinas in 1809: "the principal and most perfect branch of ethics"
*It has been used as a mechanism to set limits to law and also to provide justification for its
means by being aware of its ends
Normative jurisprudence: ✔✔*This has already established what jurisprudence is, it aims to
understand the moral basis for law
*What the law ought to be
*It seeks to provide a theory which determines which is morally right
*What rights to we have?
*What rights are we ought to have?
*Cierco: "law is right reason in accordance with nature"
*Aquinas: "law is an order of reason serving the common good"
Analytical jurisprudence: ✔✔* This is the study of law at its most abstract level
,*This seeks to ask questions of what actually is the law? and what the relationship of law and
morality is?
*Looks at areas of legislating and judging
*Those who are analytical jurisprudists are typically legal positivists
*Kelsen: "Law is a unified hierarchy of norms"
*Hart: "law is the union of primary and secondary norms"
Sociological approaches: ✔✔*This is how law differs from or is related to other areas such as
economics or as a society as a whole
*Max Weber: "an order will be called law if it is externally guaranteed by the probability that
coercion, to bring about conformity or avenge violation, will be applied by a staff of people
holding themselves specially ready for that purpose"
Can there is a single conception of law?: ✔✔*it can be described as a meta-theory
*Like an apple: they have an essence defined by genus and differential
*Like a triangle: these exist, but never exist perfectly in reality, they are an archetype an ideal
Natural Law: ✔✔*This deals with what are valid legal rules or sources of law and is based on
the idea that the sources of law include a moral test of validity
,*Theorists like Aquinas and John Finnis have appealed to a higher authority if law because it is
determined by reason and is capable of producing just and fair laws which have moral authority
Legal positivism: ✔✔*Classical, there is no connection between law and morality
*only law enacted by government or the state have legal authority
*Modern, like Raz, there can be some link between morality and law but it is unnecessary to use
moral arguments to discover the law
Legal realism: ✔✔*Only the real word legal practices of judiciary influence and the
development of law, as judges determine the content of legal rights and duties according to
public policy and prevailing interests of the wider society rather than compliance with abstract
moral rules
Help with answering such questions: ✔✔(1) Explain what is law, not just a simple matter of
judicial precedent
(2) Address the idea of law in context, influenced and interpreted culturally, socially,
theologically, politically and historically significant
(3) Explain how these belong to certain distinctive schools of jurisprudence
(4) Mention examples or issues form the past or modern issues which illustrate the continuing
need for jurisprudence, like the permitting of torture or legalising euthanasia
, Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): ✔✔*His key work was Summa Theologica
*Core message of his work is that moral standards/moral law derives from the nature of the
world and human beings within it, natural law is "the ordinance of reason"
*Human beings have the capacity of reason which enables them to deduce right actions towards
the "common good"
*Laws must be reasonable, they must be directed towards the common good and not serve the
private interest of a few individuals, this means that a government which enacts unjust laws lacks
moral authority and surrenders any right to obedience
Thomas Aquinas 2: ✔✔*Aquinas pre-conditions for the enactment of a law: (1) made for the
common good (2) made by the whole people or by God's vice regent for the whole people who is
the monarch ruling for the divine right (3) promulgated
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) 2: ✔✔*Lex Aeterna (eternal law): this is timeless laws which
apply to the whole community or the universe, they are governed by God. Eternal law is not
knowable as we cannot know the theory of everything. For example, we do not know what the
sun is really like, we only have an imperfect idea of its nature gained by observing its effects on
Earth.
