What is jurisprudence? It is difficult for those who are not involved in this sacrament to understand the multifaceted nature of this industry and the opportunities that it provides to people with an analytical mindset. Lawyers are not only those who wish at all costs to achieve the truth, but also those who like to manipulate the letter of the law. Reasonably, of course. It is incomparable pleasure when you manage to interpret a seemingly very unambiguously written article in your favor.
What is jurisprudence?
If translated literally, then from Latin “yurus” means law, and “prudenty” means knowledge or providence. That is, jurisprudence is a science that studies the properties of law and the state, generalizes knowledge of laws. In addition, the so-called activities of lawyers and other employees of the judicial branch of government.
The term "jurisprudence" can mean several different concepts at once:
- This is a science that theoretically studies the structure of the state and its laws, analyzes the results of applying law in practice and puts forward a new version of the changes, thanks to which it is possible to optimize the existing mechanisms for regulating relations between the state and society.
- This is a system by which future generations of lawyers, investigators, prosecutors and judges can be trained.
- Direct work of lawyers, practical application of knowledge gained.
Legal sciences are those social sciences that study law and a system that establishes social norms, creates new laws and applies them in practice.
Industries
The areas of jurisprudence can be divided into three large branches, each of which can be used both separately and in combination with the other two.
- Theoretical and philosophical law. These include directly jurisprudence, the history of the state and the development of law, the theory of the state, and the history of legal teachings. Meet in the training of young personnel, as well as in scientific activities in the field of jurisprudence.
- Legal sciences: civil, criminal, administrative, family, military and other types of legal legislation. Highly specialized codes that have collected all the regulatory documents governing the relationship between a person in the context of this particular department of law.
- Applied sciences, such as forensic science, ballistics, forensic medicine and psychiatry, legal psychology, trasology and others. They are used to gather evidence and are an integral part of any investigation.
Antique time
What is jurisprudence and how did it arise? The earliest references to law relate to the “Hammurabi Laws” found during excavations in Ancient Sumer. But the most famous is the system of Roman law, which grew and developed in parallel with how the Roman Empire expanded.
Initially, the law regulated only the administration of religious rites, the activities of cults of various gods, the position of the king or leader. Then, with the development of culture, a philosophy appeared that took on the role of an arbitrator and, concurrently, a creator of laws. Over time, jurisprudence became a separate discipline, a special school appeared in which it was possible to get this narrow specialty. Initially, the right to such knowledge was the privilege of the priests, since they enjoyed unshakable authority among the people.
The first mass training of law began by Sabin in the first century AD.By the fifth century (the time of the collapse of the Roman Empire), such schools already existed in Constantinople, Alexandria, Athens, Beirut and other large cities.
Middle Ages
After the collapse of the great power, the honor of explaining to the neophytes what jurisprudence is, fell to the lot of Byzantium. Arab countries preferred religious law, the so-called Sharia. Knowledge was given to students at the same time as they taught Islam.
Western Europe for some time ceased to be a cultural center and sought to keep its population away from knowledge in general and jurisprudence in particular. Only in the tenth century a school was opened in Pavia where Lombard law was studied. Two hundred years later, a university was established in Bologna, which provided the opportunity to acquire knowledge in Roman law.
By the fifteenth century, such famous universities as Oxford, Cambridge, Padua, Paris and others appear in different countries of Europe. The fundamental sciences are taught in them: medicine, philosophy, rhetoric, ethics, and, of course, jurisprudence.
Lawyers gradually stand out in a separate, respected by all, estate. These people are engaged in the development of the science of law, study and apply in a modern way the legal practices used in the Roman Empire. Their work is the basis of modern legislation in many European countries.
England, New Time
The work of jurisprudence, as a science, does not end with the advent of the Reformation and the New Time. At the end of the fifteenth century, the writings of Fortescue and Littleton, which became major in the fields of public and private law, were brought to the public.
In 1558, Stoneford and Smith published a complete collection of laws on criminal, civil and state law, which had practical application at that time in England. They were able to concisely and readily reproduce the texts of the laws themselves, as well as give an understandable explanation.
The most famous in English jurisprudence is the four-volume treatise of William Blackstone, entitled "Commentary on English Laws", published at the end of the eighteenth century. This book, like its author, had a significant impact on the development of law on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in America.
France
The practice of jurisprudence in France underwent major changes at the end of the fifteenth century, when Louet compiled a collection of court decisions covering a long period of time. Lawyers, whose names are lost in history, painstakingly studied Roman law and reformed the existing judicial system in order to make it more suitable in a changing world.
After the French Revolution in 1789, Napoleon's new criminal and civil code appeared, forcing lawyers to sit down again for theoretical research. It was necessary for the new law to find its practical application.
Russia
The concept of jurisprudence in Russia was very vague. Students were taught spiritual and secular justice until the time that Peter the Great ascended the throne. He established the Academy of Policy for the training of public office workers.
The Academy of Sciences, established in 1725, already had a department of practical jurisprudence, and in 1732 the Shlyakheti Corps opened, where the theoretical side of law was studied. Professors from Germany and England specially came to Moscow University to give lectures on this subject.
In order not to be misleading, it is worth noting that before the October Revolution all social sciences, such as ethics, philosophy, rhetoric, were united into a single concept - jurisprudence.
Modern jurisprudence
After the twentieth century, the specialty of jurisprudence has become a universally accessible and respected branch of science, since special institutions have appeared to regulate relations between the state and individuals.
At the present stage, in order to be able to work as a lawyer, it is necessary to obtain a diploma of completed higher legal education. If desired, students can expand their training with theoretical knowledge and obtain master's and doctoral degrees. To do this, write a dissertation and defend it in a college of lawyers.