Law is a set of rules that are created and enforced by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior. Its precise definition is a matter of longstanding controversy. Law can be imposed by force, or it can exist in the form of voluntary agreements. It is a social phenomenon that satisfies many social wants, but its primary functions include establishing standards and order, punishing offenders, and protecting liberties and rights.
The philosophical study of law is known as jurisprudence. It can be divided into five main families of views. The first, and most traditional, is that of a metanormative study, in which theories of law seek to provide an account of the concept of law. This view has remained the dominant one until recently, when a more skeptical approach has gained favor among some scholars, arguing that jurisprudence is part of a larger philosophical project in which morals and ethics are studied in the same way as other social phenomena like law.
Another approach to jurisprudence is that of a descriptive study, in which the aim is to describe law as it exists in actual practice. This has been the focus of much research on legal institutions, including studies of the origins and development of law. It is a method of inquiry favored by modern sociologists and historians, but it has received criticism from some philosophers for neglecting the normative aspect of law.
A third approach aims to explain why and how law comes about. This has been a popular focus of recent philosophy of law, especially in the work of Max Weber. Weber’s theory is that there are certain features, or properties, of laws that make them legitimate and authoritative. He argues that these features are reflected in the ways in which law is actually practised, and that they also show up in the results of law enforcement.
Other theorists have tried to understand the nature of law in more conceptual terms, without referring to specific examples or cases. John Austin’s utilitarian definition is that law consists of commands, backed by threat of sanctions, from a superior authority to whom men have a habit of obedience. Others, such as Jeremy Bentham and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, have advocated a natural law perspective, in which laws are rooted in innate moral principles that govern the universe.
Still others have argued that the existence of law depends on its being coercive, or at least on the probability that the threat of coercion will lead to compliance or avenge violations. This has been a controversial view, with Hans Kelsen and twentieth century legal positivists such as H.L.A. Hart and Joseph Raz denying that coercion is essential to the function of law. Others, such as McCoubrey and White and Nigel Williams, have argued that the meaning of the term “law” is context dependent, requiring a consideration of the underlying needs of a society for it to make sense of its laws. This argument has been criticized as unfounded, but is nonetheless influential in contemporary political debates.