Philosophical or Ethical school Module I Philosophical or Ethical school

Philosophical or Ethical school According to this school legal philosophy must be based on ethical values so as to motivate people for an upright living. According to this school the purpose of law is to maintain social harmony and to maintain law and order in society and legal restrictions can be justified only if they promote the freedom of individuals in the society.

Hugo Grotius Founder of international law Grotius said that a system of natural law may be derived from the social nature of man. He defined Natural law as “the dictate of right reason which points out that an act, according as it is or is not in conformity with rational nature, has in it a quality of moral baseness or moral necessity. In this way, he built up a system of natural law that should command universal respect by its own inherent moral worth.

Criticism Yet his theory was based on morality but there is a difference between ethics and morality . Ethics are the behavioral pattern of the person whereas morality are the values imbibed in him. Beside morality there are other factors social, economical and political patterns of the society which are very important for the formation of law. Legislation, customs, precedents etc. are also the other sources which are very important in the formation of law. Hugo said that Natural law desreves universal command which is not possible in modern times because now laws are formed by taking state, people and nature into consideration and then to make laws according to the need of the society.

Immanuel Kant “Law is the sum total of the conditions under which the personal wishes of man can be reconciled with the personal wishes of an other man in accordance with a general law of freedom”. Kant’s legal philosophy is entirely a theory of what the law ought to be. Kant distinguished between legal duties and legal rights. He also distinguished between natural rights and acquired rights. He recognized one natural right of the freedom of man in so far as it can coexist with everyone else’s freedom under a general law.

Immanuel Kant According to Kant, the function of the State is essentially that of protector and guardian of law. The aim of Kant was a universal world state. He differentiated between Ethics and laws according to him ethics relates to man spontaneous acts whereas laws deals with those acts which the man is compelled to do by the state and society. Ethics deals with inner life or insight or consciousness of the people whereas laws regulates external conduct of the person. He said that legislation could be effective only when it represent united will of the people. According to him justice is relative concept depending on conditions, place, social values etc. in which an action takes place. He said that laws must be metaphysical derived from reason in order to be just.

Criticism of Kant theory Since his theory entirely based on ‘what law ought to be’ he forget to consider the past and present of the law. He denied the concept of natural law which is very important for the existence of laws. He theory has given theoretical differences between ethics and laws but there is no practical application of them. He has also not given importance to other sources like customs which are considered to be oldest source of law.

Hegel According to him “Both the State and Law are the product of evolution. Legal institutions are within the sphere of legal, ethical and political institutions. They are the expressions of the free human mind which wishes to embody itself in institutions. Hegel carried further Kant’s doctrine of freedom of will. He had made important contribution to legal philosophy as according to him law is the development of the idea of evolution. He contended that various manifestations of social life including law are the product of evolutionary process. He said that consists thesis which means that human spirit set thesis which become leading idea of particular time ; and then anti-thesis which are criticism, objections of those ideas ; and then synthesis which is conflict between thesis and anti-thesis into an effort to reconcile them thus State is the synthesis of family, society and civil society.

Criticism of Hegel He has not given importance to social and economic institutions which are also important concepts in modern progressive societies. Only freedom of will is not important the value should be given to all others aspects say social, political, economical, legal aspects which help in the formation of law and society. There should be restriction on expression of human mind so that peace and harmony can be maintained in the society. There should be efficient legal mechanism to control the society with freedom of will and independence of human mind.