Abstract
Law, like every other social concept, is not amenable to a straight-jacketed definition. This is because the concept has been defined by philosophers, jurists, scholars and commentators from variegated sets of backgrounds which reflect in the positions canvassed and claims made about law. It is not in dispute, and there seems to be an unusual unanimity among scholars, that law is a tool for the maintenance of law and order, peace and stability, as well as the regulation of the behavior and activities of human beings in the society. However, the controversy surrounding the meaning of law is one that has raged on from antiquity and even till today, the argument rages on. In the course of intellectual efforts to define law, several viewpoints have emerged. These viewpoints are what are known as the theories of law or schools of jurisprudence. Among these, natural law, legal positivism, realist theory, pure theory, sociological theory, historical theory and the economic law theory are the most prominent. The present paper seeks to expound the various jurisprudential doctrines or schools on what law truly is. In doing this, the paper presents the basic arguments or claims made by each school of jurisprudence regarding the notion of law, their major strengths and contributions to the Nigerian legal system and those of the contemporary world, as well as the major weak points of the theories. The paper argues that no one theory is self-sufficient; no single theory has been able to offer a satisfactory explication of the concept of law free from objections. There is no legal system that can survive by complete reliance on the views of a particular theory. It concludes that each theory has something to contribute to the development of the legal system and that the complete picture of law can only be achieved when the views, strengths and weaknesses of all the schools of jurisprudence are synthesized. Keywords: Jurisprudential, Doctrines, Nature, Law, Impact, Contemporary, Global Legal Systems. DOI : 10.7176/JLPG/85-01 Publication date :May 31 st 2019
Highlights
Law is a necessity in every human society
The discussion has proved that the complete idea of law can only be arrived at when the concepts of law as theorized by the various jurisprudential schools are analysed, evaluated and synthesized
Each school of thought has something substantial to contribute to a proper understanding of what law is, its relationship with concepts such as morality and justice, as well as its role in the human society
Summary
Law is a necessity in every human society. Wherever human beings congregate as a society, there must of necessity be the need for a system of regulating conduct or behaviour if such society will not relapse into the metaphorical state of nature where Hobbes described life as short, nasty, solitary and brutish. This theory claims that law is characteristically laid down posited or created by an act of man for the governance of society.[5] This school rejects the notion that law is discoverable from nature.
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