The Province of Jurisprudence Determined

A work that has had a profound influence on the study of English and American law, The Province of Jurisprudence Determined is a model of rigorous and clear analysis. With its publication Austin brought order to the disparate elements of a legal profession that up until his time was largely unsystematic. Although he was greatly respected by a small circle of supporters, including Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, his work received little attention beyond his friends during his lifetime. It was only after Austin's death that his writings began to attract general notice. Then his analysis became the focal point for strong disagreements over the true nature of law, the definition of law as a form of command with implied sanctions, and the problem of differentiating legal authority, political power, and morality. The later fame of his work appears to have resulted from the controversies it generated.

Perhaps Austin's most significant contribution was to make a clear distinction between "positive law" (i.e., laws decreed by the sovereign or government) and moral principles (which he terms the "law of God"). In so doing he defined the field of inquiry for later students. Also of interest is the influence of utilitarian philosophy on his analysis: for example, he viewed the principle of social utility as a benchmark for discerning God's commands and hence for judging the overall moral quality of rules of conduct.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with Austin's analysis, it is clear that his work is now established as indispensable for all discussions of jurisprudence.

JOHN AUSTIN was born March 3, 1790, at Creeting Mill, Suf-folk, England. After five years in the army, Austin began to study law, and from 1818 to 1825 he practiced at the chancery bar. In 1820, he married Sarah Taylor (1793-1867), who trans-lated and edited German and French historical texts, including Leopold von Ranke's History of the Popes (1840) and History of the Reformation in Germany?(1845) and Francois Guizot's English Revolution (1850). Both Austin and his wife were ardent Utili-tarians; intimate friends of social theorists Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, and his son John Stuart Mill; and much concerned with legal reform.?

When University College, London, was founded in 1826, Austin was appointed its first professor of jurisprudence. He spent the next two years in Germany studying Roman law and the work of German experts on modern civil law. Austin's first lectures, in 1828, were attended by many distinguished men, but he failed to attract students and eventually he resigned his chair in 1832. In 1834, after delivering a shorter but equally unsuc-cessful version of his lectures, he abandoned the teaching of jurisprudence. He was appointed to the Criminal Law Com-mission in 1833 but, finding little support for his opinions, resigned in frustration after signing its first two reports. In 1836 he was appointed a commissioner on the affairs of Malta. The Austins then lived abroad, chiefly in Paris, until 1848, when they settled in Surrey, where John Austin died at Weybridge in December 1859.?

Austin's best-known work, a version of part of his lectures, is The Province of Jurisprudence?Determined, published in 1832. Defining the sphere of ethics and law, it came to revolutionize English views on the subject, and was welcomed by American jurists such as J.C. Gray and Oliver Wendell Holmes.