What is jusriprudence

NATURE AND SCOPE OF JURISPRUDENCE What is Jurisprudence? T IS DIFFICULT to give a universal and uniform definition of juris- prudence. Every jurist has his own notion of the subject-matter and the proper limits of jurisprudence depend upon his ideology and the nature of society. Moreover, the growth and development of law in different countries has been under different social and political condi- tions. The words used for law in different countries convey different meanings. The words of one language do not have synonyms in other languages conveying the same meaning. The word "jurisprudence" is not generally used in other languages in the English sense. In French, it refers to something like "case law". The evolution of society is ofa dynamic nature and hence the difficulty in accepting a definition by all. New problems and new issues demand new solutions and new in- terpretations under changed circumstances. However, scientific inven- tions have brought the people of the world closer to each other which helps the universalisation of ideas and thoughts and the development of a common terminology The study of jurisprudence started with the Romans. The Latin equivalent of "jurisprudence is jurisprudentia which means either "knowledge of law" or "skill in law". Ulpian defines jurisprudencae as "the knowledge of things divine and human, the science of the just and unjust" Paulus, another Roman jurist, maintained that "the law is not to be deduced from the rule, but the rule from the law" The defi- nitions given by the Roman jurists are vague and inadequate but they put forth the idea of a legal science independent of the actual institu- tions of a particular society In England, the word jurisprudence was in use throughout the early formative period of the common law, but as meaning little more than the study of or skill in law. It was not until the time of Bentham and his