Jeremy Bentham

1
Jeremy Bentham

• Of Laws in General

A law may be defined as an assemblage of signs
declarative of a volition conceived or adopted by
the sovereign in a state, concerning the conduct
to be observed in a certain case by a certain
person or class of persons, who in the case in
question are or are supposed to be subject to his
power such volition trusting for its
accomplishment to the expectation of certain
events which it is intended such declaration
should upon occasion be a means of bringing to
pass, and the prospect of which it is intended
should act as a motive upon those whose conduct
is in question.
2
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)
• Includes corroborative 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 eminate from the
  sovereign
• Illegal every other mandate whatsoever.
• This partition bears reference to the source of
  law.

3
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 Sovereigns 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)

4
Source of Law (cont.)

• 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 referrable 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.)