ETYMOLOGY OF JURISPRUDENCE

Asmatullah Kakar

Literal Meaning of Jurisprudence:

§  Jurisprudence is derived from two Latin words: Juris means law, and Prudentia means knowledge, study, philosophy, science or art. Hence, literally it means knowledge, study, philosophy, science or art of law.

Counterpart Terminologies:

§  The counterpart terminology of jurisprudence in France is la philosophie du droit which means ‘the philosophy of rights, i.e. of law’.

§  Its counterpart terminology in German is Rechtsphilosophie, i.e. ‘the philosophy of rights.

Usage of the Term Jurisprudence:

Jurisprudence has been used to denote different things:

§  In the Institutes of Justinian it was defined as the knowledge of what is just and unjust.

§  In sixteenth century in Europe it was used to signify the knowledge of Roman Law

§  In France it has been used to for collection of the principles relating to a particular field of law, e.g., equity jurisprudence, criminal jurisprudence etc.

§  It is also used to denote the whole corpus (body) of law of a particular country, e.g. Pakistan Jurisprudence, English Jurisprudence, American Jurisprudence etc.

§  It has also been used express the collection of the decisions of a Courts, i.e. Case Laws, e.g. ICC Jurisprudence, Jurisprudence of Supreme Court of Pakistan etc.

Current Meaning:

However, the term Jurisprudence with which we are concerned in LL.B., shall mean the knowledge of law. This is scientific or analytical knowledge of the law in abstract sense (first principles of law).