Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

Of Laws in General

▪A Law Defined and Distinguished

▪A law has eight different aspects:

▸Its source (person whose will is expressed by it)

▸Its subjects (people and things to which it may apply)

▸Its objects (the acts and circumstances to which it may apply)

▸Its extent (the general or specific scope of its application)

▸Its aspects (the manner it which it is to be applied)

▸Its force (the motives it relies upon to produce its desired effect)

–Includescorroborative appendages (other laws or rules relied upon to produce the desired effect)

▸Its expression (the signs by which the will of the source is made known.

▸Its remedial appendages (other laws subjoined to the principal law in question as an aid to enforcement)

▪The First partition, then is between the

▸Legal – those mandates which emanate from the sovereign

▸Illegal – every other mandate whatsoever.

▪This partition bears reference to the source of law.

Source of Law

▪The will expressed (to be law) must be the will of the sovereign in a state.

▪Such will has no force or effect upon a person not subject to the will of that sovereign, yet the will of that sovereign is still law.

▪The Sovereign’s will may be a mandate in two ways:

▸By conception (will originating in that sovereign)

▸By adoption (by taking the mandate of another as his own)

–Time at which the adoption is performed

–Either by susception of mandates already issued (former King)

–Or by Pre-adoption of mandates to be issued (by ministers)

–The persons whose mandates are thus adopted

–Former sovereigns

–Subordinate power-holders

–Enforcement of private agreements (contract)

–The degree to which those mandates are adopted

–First step is the permission given to the subordinate to make a mandate for the sovereign

–The extent to which the mandate of the subordinate will be enforced

–The form of expressions by which the adoption of the mandates is performed

–Either by a grant of permission to the subordinate power-holder, or

–By a command to the public to obey mandates issued by the subordinate power-holder

▪Recap

▸Mandates are referable to the sovereign or not: if not, then illegal

▸Legal Mandates are either

–Private or domestic which the sovereign will enforce, or

–Civil or Public from the Sovereign or his authorized subordinates

–(Note that the Sovereign may be either a single person or sovereign body, or their subordinates.)