Law Definition & Meaning
King Hammurabi is revealed the code of laws by the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash, also revered as the god of justice. Hugo Grotius, the founder of a purely rationalistic system of natural law, argued that law arises from both a social impulse—as Aristotle had indicated—and reason. Immanuel Kant believed a moral imperative requires laws “be chosen as though they should hold as universal laws of nature”. Jeremy Bentham and his student Austin, following David Hume, believed that this conflated the “is” and what “ought to be” problem. Bentham and Austin argued for law’s positivism; that real law is entirely separate from “morality”.
- His research focuses on how legal institutions can best serve our shared values during times of financial distress.
- The Law Society of Ireland is the educational, representative and regulatory body for the solicitors’ profession in Ireland.
- However, Athens had no legal science or single word for “law”, relying