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Jurisprudence

Semester 3 · 24 topics in 5 units

Past question papers for Jurisprudence

Unit I 6 topics

  1. Jurisprudence: meaning, nature, scope, purpose and valueWhat jurisprudence means, the definitions of Cicero, Austin, Holland, Salmond and Pound, whether it is a science, what it covers, and why a lawyer needs it.6 min
  2. The natural law schoolNatural law from the Greeks and Romans through Aquinas, Grotius, Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, its decline in the nineteenth century, its revival in Stammler, Fuller and Finnis, its attractions and criticisms, and its use by the Indian Supreme Court.6 min
  3. The imperative theory: law as the command of the sovereignAustin's analytical positivism: command, sanction, duty and sovereign, what he excluded from law properly so called, the criticisms of Maine, Hart and others, and whether the theory fits India.5 min
  4. Legal realism: American and ScandinavianLaw as what courts actually do: Holmes, Gray, Frank and Llewellyn in America, Hagerstrom, Olivecrona and Ross in Scandinavia, the common features of realism and its criticisms.5 min
  5. The historical school: Savigny, Puchta and MaineLaw as the product of the Volksgeist: Savigny's theory and its occasion in the codification debate, Puchta's development, Maine's ancient law and the movement from status to contract, the criticisms, and how Indian personal law illustrates the school.5 min
  6. The sociological school: Ihering, Ehrlich, Duguit and PoundLaw as an instrument of social control: Comte and Ihering's interests, Ehrlich's living law, Duguit's social solidarity, Pound's social engineering and his table of interests, the criticisms, and the school's influence on Indian constitutional law.5 min

Unit II 5 topics

  1. Nature, functions and purpose of lawWhat law is according to the main schools, the characteristics of law, its functions (order, justice, social control, social change, dispute settlement) and its purposes, with the Indian constitutional picture.5 min
  2. Questions of law, fact and discretionSalmond's three senses of a question of law, questions of fact and the matters of judicial discretion, how a question of fact becomes one of law, mixed questions, and why the distinction decides appeals in India.5 min
  3. Justice and its kindsThe meaning of justice from Plato and Aristotle to Bentham and Rawls, distributive and corrective justice, natural and legal justice, social, economic and political justice under the Constitution, and the relation between law and justice.4 min
  4. Civil and criminal administration of justice; primary and secondary functions of courtsSalmond's account of the origin and necessity of the administration of justice, primary and sanctioning rights, the remedies of civil justice, the differences between civil and criminal proceedings, and the secondary functions of courts.5 min
  5. Theories of punishmentDeterrent, preventive, retributive, reformative and expiatory theories of punishment, their merits and defects, the purpose of the criminal justice system, and how the Supreme Court has combined them in sentencing and the death penalty.5 min

Unit III 3 topics

  1. Legislation as a source of lawMeaning and kinds of legislation, supreme and subordinate legislation and the control of delegated legislation, why legislation is the superior source, and its advantages over precedent and custom.5 min
  2. Precedent: ratio decidendi, obiter dicta and binding forceMeaning and kinds of precedent, the doctrine of stare decisis in England and under Article 141, ratio decidendi and obiter dicta with the tests for finding the ratio, and the circumstances that destroy or weaken the binding force of a precedent.6 min
  3. Custom as a source of law, and the three sources comparedWhat custom is, the theories of how it becomes law, legal and conventional custom, general and local custom, the requisites of a valid custom with the statutory definition in Indian law, and a comparison of legislation, precedent and custom.6 min

Unit IV 5 topics

  1. Legal rights and duties: elements, kinds and Hohfeld's analysisDefinitions of a legal right, Salmond's five elements, the correlation of rights and duties, the kinds of rights and duties, and rights in the wider sense: Hohfeld's claims, liberties, powers and immunities with their correlatives and opposites.6 min
  2. Possession: corpus and animus, kinds and possessory remediesPossession in fact and in law, the theories of Savigny, Ihering and Salmond, corpus and animus possidendi, kinds of possession, acquisition and loss, the finders' cases, possessory remedies under the Specific Relief Act, and a worked finder problem.8 min
  3. Ownership: idea, incidents, kinds and the difference from possessionDefinitions of ownership by Austin, Holland, Salmond and Honore, its features and incidents, the modes of acquisition, the kinds of ownership (corporeal and incorporeal, sole and co-ownership, legal and equitable, vested and contingent, trust and beneficial), and how ownership differs from possession.5 min
  4. Legal personality: natural and juristic personsWho is a person in law, natural and legal persons, the theories of corporate personality (fiction, concession, realist, bracket, purpose), corporations sole and aggregate, and juristic persons in Indian law: idols, the Guru Granth Sahib, and the question of animals and rivers.6 min
  5. Status of the unborn, minors, lunatics, drunken and dead personsWhen legal personality begins and ends, the rights of the child in the womb in property, succession, tort and criminal law, the limited capacity of minors, persons of unsound mind and intoxicated persons, and the protection the law gives to the dead.6 min

Unit V 5 topics

  1. Liability: theory, conditions, the wrongful act, damnum sine injuria and causationSalmond's theory of liability, civil and criminal, remedial and penal liability, the two conditions of an act and a mental element, the analysis of an act, damnum sine injuria and injuria sine damno, and causation and remoteness.5 min
  2. Mens rea: intention, motive, malice, negligence and recklessnessThe guilty mind as the formal condition of liability, intention and its distinction from motive, the irrelevance of motive and the meanings of malice, negligence as a state of mind or as conduct, recklessness, and when statutes exclude mens rea.6 min
  3. Strict liability and vicarious liabilityLiability without fault: strict liability in tort and crime, Rylands v. Fletcher and absolute liability after M.C. Mehta; vicarious liability, its justifications and incidents, the master and servant relationship and the course of employment, and the liability of the State.6 min
  4. Obligation: nature, sources and kinds, and solidary obligationsObligation as the vinculum juris between two persons, its relation to rights in personam, Salmond's four sources (contractual, delictual, quasi-contractual, innominate), solidary obligations (several, joint, joint and several) and their treatment in the Indian Contract Act.5 min
  5. Substantive law and procedural lawSalmond's distinction between the law of rights and the law of remedies, Bentham's adjective law, the tests for telling them apart, the borderline cases (evidence, limitation, jurisdiction), and why the distinction matters for retrospective operation and for the courts' approach to procedure.5 min