Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

general jurisprudence

1 The scholarly study of the fundamental elements of a given legal system. - Also termed jurisprudentia generalis. "The term 'general jurisprudence' involves the misleading suggestion that this branch of legal science is that which relates not to any single system of law, but to those conceptions and principles that are to be found in all developed legal systems, and which are therefore in this sense general. It is true that a great part of the matter with which it is concerned is common to all mature systems of law. All of these have the same essential nature and purposes, and therefore agree to a large extent in their first principles. But it is not because of universal reception that any principles pertain to the theory or philosophy of law. For this purpose such reception is neither sufficient nor necessary. Even if no system in the world save that of England recognised the legislative efficacy of judicial precedents, the theory of case-law would none the less be a fit and proper subject of general jurisprudence. Jurisprudentia generalis is not the study of legal systems in general, but the study of the general or fundamental elements of a particular legal system." John Salmond, Jurisprudence 3 n.(b) (Glanville L. Williams ed., 10th ed. 1947). 2. The scholarly study of the law, legal theory, and legal systems generally. - Also termed jurisprudentia universalis; philosophy of law; legal philosophy. "According to Austin (1790-1859), general jurisprudence is the study of the 'principles, notions and distinctions' common to the maturer systems of law." Rupert Cross & J.W. Harris, Precedent in English Law 2 (4th ed. 1991).