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John Austin (legal philosopher) Quotes (1790-1859)

John Austin (legal philosopher)

About John Austin (legal philosopher)

John Austin (3 March 1790, Creeting Mill, Suffolk – 1 December 1859, Weybridge, Surrey) was a noted British legal theorist who strongly influenced Anglo-American law by means of his analytical approach to jurisprudence and his theory of legal positivism.

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“The matter of jurisprudence is positive law: law, simply and strictly so called : or law set by political superiors to political inferiors.”
John Austin (legal philosopher)
“A command is distinguished from other significations of desire, not by the style in which the desire is signified, but by the power or purpose of the party to inflict an evil or pain in case the desire is disregarded.”
John Austin (legal philosopher)
“Every positive law, or every law simply and strictly so called, is set, directly or circuitously, by a sovereign person or body, to a member or members of the independent political society wherein that person or body is supreme.”
John Austin (legal philosopher)
“The existence of a law is one thing, its merits or demerits is are another thing. Whether a law be, is one inquiry; whether it ought to be o whether it agree with a given or assumed test, is another and a distinct inquiry.”
“Since the term command comprises the term law the first is the simpler as well as the larger of the two. But simple as it is, it admits of explanation. And, since it is the key to the sciences of jurisprudence and morals, its meaning should be analyzed with. precision.”

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H. L. A. Hart on John Austin (legal philosopher)

“Within a few years of his death it was clear that his work had established the study of jurisprudence in England.”
John Austin (legal philosopher)

About John Austin (legal philosopher)

John Austin (3 March 1790, Creeting Mill, Suffolk – 1 December 1859, Weybridge, Surrey) was a noted British legal theorist who strongly influenced Anglo-American law by means of his analytical approach to jurisprudence and his theory of legal positivism.