Austin, J. L. (1790–1859)

Abstract

AbstractEnglish legal philosopher John Austin – a nervous, obsessive perfectionist prone to depression – spent five years in the British army (1806–11) before unsuccessful stints at the London bar (1818–25) and as the inaugural professor of jurisprudence at the University of London (1826–32). Strongly influenced by the utilitarian Jeremy Bentham, in his sole bookThe Province of Jurisprudence DeterminedAustin argued that jurisprudence is confined to the study of positive (i.e., human‐made) law, and pays special attention to its language, concepts, logic, and classifications. Austin famously defined “positive law” as a general command given directly or indirectly by a determinate, indivisible sovereign to a subject who would suffer an “evil” (i.e., a sanction) if s/he did not comply. These positive laws, or laws “properly” or “strictly so called,” had to be distinguished from laws “improperly so called,” a broad subset of which he termed “positive morality.”