Rudolph von ihering

This slide contains basic information about the ideas of Rudolf Von Ihering about law. Ihering belongs to the Sociological School of Jurisprudence.

1. Rudolf Von Ihering Sociological School of Jurisprudence

2. Ihering was from Germany. He is known as the ‘ father of Modern Sociological Jurisprudence’. His philosophy is also known as ‘jurisprudence of interests’. Earlier, Ihering had belonged to the Historical School. While writing a book on Roman Law, Ihering became convinced that the origin of law lay in sociological factors. Thereafter, he dedicated the rest of his life towards Sociological Jurisprudence.

3. Law as a Means to an End The driving force behind the exercise of human will is purpose . A man does an act in order to attain something. Law is but a part of human conduct. Laws spring from purpose. Their purpose is to further and protect the interests of the society. The problem of society is to reconcile selfish with unselfish purposes and to suppress the former when they clash with the latter. Ihering stressed that law does not exist for the individual as an end in himself, but serves his interest with the good of society in view.

4. If the society is happy, so will be the individual. Law is a means to an end. The examples of such an end may be social values like honesty , justice , peace , non-violence etc.

5. The conflicting interests Ihering stressed on balancing between various interests. He said that social interest must be given priority over individual interest. He grouped interests into 3 categories: individual, state and social.

6. The conflicting interests The social activities of man need to be encouraged. The following principles direct men towards social ends: Principle of Reward Principle of Coercion Principle of Duty Principle of Love The first two, reward and coercion, seek to identify the selfish interest of man with some larger social interest. The other two, duty and love, are altruistic principles.

7. Where duty, love and reward proved insufficient, Ihering said that the use of coercion by the state was justified to protect social interest .

8. Ihering sees law as only one type of means to achieve an end, namely, social control. Ihering draws a distinction between society and state and says that laws are a feature of the latter, the state.

9. Ihering was inspired by Bentham and Mill’s utilitarianism for he defines ‘interest’ in terms of pleasure and pain. Ihering’s theory is also known as ‘social utilitarianism’. But he rejected their ideas of individualism. Individualism, according to him was incompatible with the cause of social justice.

10. His Ideas on Property Property is both an individual and a social institution. This justifies limitations put on individual’s right to property.

11. Ihering, unlike Savigny, believed that law did not grow spontaneously like a language. Rather, he attributed deliberate conscious efforts to the growth of law. On the growth of Law

12. Criticism of Ihering’s Theory He gave very little insight on how the balance could be achieved between the conflicting interests. Thus, he has only come up with a problem but has failed to provide any solution to it.