Introduction, Meaning, nature, scope and importance of jurisprudence

A traffic constable at Dadar signal stops you for jumping a red light and writes a challan. You pay, but a question nags: why is this rule law, while your mother’s rule that you must be home by ten is not? Every other law subject you will study, from contract to criminal law, takes it for granted that something called law exists and binds you. Jurisprudence is the subject that stops and asks what that something is, where it comes from, and whether it deserves our obedience.

In two minutes

Jurisprudence is the systematic, reasoned study of law itself: its nature, its basic concepts and its purposes, examined through schools of thought such as the analytical, historical, ethical and sociological.

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