Essentially, there is no unanimity of opinion regarding the scope of
jurisprudence. Different authorities attribute different meanings and varying
premises to law and that causes difference opinions with regard to the exact
limit of the field covered by jurisprudence.
Jurisprudence has been so defined as to cover moral and religious
precepts also and that has created confusion. It goes to the credit to Austin that
he distinguished law from morality and theology and restricted the term to the
body of the rules set and enforced by the sovereign or supreme law making
authority within the realm.
Thus the scope of jurisprudence was limited to the study of the concepts
of positive law and ethics and theology fall outside the province of
jurisprudence.
Jurisprudence involves the study of general theoretical questions about
the nature of laws and legal systems, about relationship of law to justice and
morality and about the social nature of law.
All in all jurisprudence includes all concepts of human order and human
conduct in state and society. Anything that concerns order in the state and
society falls under the domain jurisprudence.
Relevance of Jurisprudence
This subject has its own intrinsic interest and value because this is a
subject of serious scholarship and research; researchers in Jurisprudence
contribute to the development of society by having repercussions in the whole
legal, political and social school of thoughts.
One of the tasks of this subject is to construct and elucidate concepts
serving to render the complexities of law more manageable and more rational. It
is the belief of this subject that the theory can help to improve practice.
Jurisprudence also has an educational value.
It helps in the logical analysis of the legal concepts and it sharpens
the logical techniques of the lawyer.
The study of jurisprudence helps to combat the lawyer’s occupational
view of formalism which leads to excessive concentration on legal rules for
their own sake and disregard of the social function of the law.
The study of jurisprudence helps to put law in its proper context by
considering the needs of the society and by taking note of the advances in
related and relevant disciplines.
Jurisprudence can teach the people to look if not forward, at least
sideways and around them and realize that answers to a new legal problem must
be found by a consideration of present social needs and not in the wisdom of
the past.
Jurisprudence is the eye of law and the grammar of law because it throws
light on basic ideas and fundamental principles of law. Therefore, by
understanding the nature of law, its concepts and distinctions, a lawyer can
find out the actual rule of law.
It also helps in knowing the language, grammar, the basis of treatment
and assumptions upon which the subject rests. Therefore, some logical training
is necessary for a lawyer which he can find from the study of Jurisprudence.
It trains the critical faculties of the mind of the students so that
they can dictate fallacies and use accurate legal terminology and expression.
It helps a lawyer in his practical work. A lawyer always has to tackle
new problems every day. This he can handle through his knowledge of
Jurisprudence which trains his mind to find alternative legal channels of
thought.
Jurisprudence helps the judges and lawyers in ascertaining the true
meaning of the laws passed by the legislators by providing the rules of
interpretation.
Therefore, the study of jurisprudence should not be confined to the
study of positive laws but also must include normative study i.e. that study
should deal with the improvement of law in the context of prevailing
socio-economic and political philosophies of time, place and circumstances.
