Jurisprudence is lawyer's extraversion in the sense that whatever be the
branch of law for instance Environmental law, Human Rights etc., or any general
concept like citizenship, the law does not confine itself to its domain or the
subject matter itself and take an extra mile while making an enquiry into said
concept or branch.
There are numerous examples like in field of environmental law, Supreme Court of
Philippines1 gave a green signal to petitioners to file a class suit on behalf
of not only their generation but also for the coming generation stating further
that each generation has been bestowed a responsibility towards next generation
for preserving harmony and necessary rhythm of fully enjoying balanced and
healthy ecology.
The rights which each human enjoy just by virtue of being born have evolved over
a period of time and have become common in legal parlance. But going an extra
mile and extending certain rights enjoyed by humans to animals as evident from
cases such as Jalikattu case2 or other cases3 is reflective of the
'extraversion' that is being purported in the definition.
The ideal interpretation of this definition is that Law being a social science
becomes bound to have nexus or common interface with other disciplines like
political science, history etc. and it is the lawyer or the framer who has to
bear the pain of understanding a particular field as subject matter taking
discourse to conjoint analysis. In other words, the ultimate primal focal point
of law is to regulate the human behavior and in this endeavor, it becomes bound
to share its territory with other social sciences.
Jurisprudence Interface with History
Each State's legal system has reflections of the events that have been unfolded
in its history and the impact it had. Every legal document like Constitution of
a State or international instrument is not drafted within days and can be traced
back to a origin point from which seeds of that document germinated and found
its way to present day with gradual changes and evolution in that direction. In
this way, History and Law share a common interface.
For instance, post outbreak of 1st World War in 1914, as a response to growing
political disconnect in India, nationalists presented British with for post-war
reforms and a Memo of those reforms was given to Lord Chelmsford who was then
Viceroy of India by 19 Imperial Legislative Council Members inclusive of Madan
Mohan Malviya and Mohammed Jinnah.
The said
Memo outlined a self-governance scheme with 13 points and by
Dec. 1916, such a scheme was devised, approved by INC and Muslim League a.k.a.
Congress-League Scheme and was passed at their respective annual sessions. At
arrival of Montagu in India in Nov. 1917, this scheme was pitched to him by
several organisations and this along with efforts of various other stakeholders
led to culmination of Report on Indian Constitutional Reforms by Montagu along
with Viceroy Chelmsford.
It was published on 8th of July 1918. The importance of these reforms is that
they led to Govt. of India Act, 1919 and for practical purposes, this can be
termed as first Constitution of India made by British. This further paved way
for Govt. of India Act, 1935 which consequently paved way to broader framework
for Constitution of Independent India to which chairman of Drafting Committee of
Constitution, Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar himself admitted in one of Constituent
Assembly Debates.
Universal Adult Franchise which was restricted in Govt. of India Act 1935 on
basis of age, income, education etc. later got modified and sticked only to age
in Indian Constitution. Another such instance is from viewpoint of territory of
India as a political unit. Till late 1700s, before Regulating Act came into
existence, governors of Bengal, Bombay and Madras used to report directly to
East India Company's London Head office. The said Act referred Bengal's governor
as governor general while the other two reporting to the Calcutta. This simple
change marked the initiation of political as well as administrative unification
of India.
The enhancement in direction of women rights is also evidence of gradual change
and did not just found its way in legislations within a day or two or for that
matter, within 2-3 years. Rigveda has ample evidence to suggest that women were
at equal pedestal with men in terms of capacity and access to highest knowledge
even that of absolute or brahma but there was ignorance. Preamble to Charter of
UN provides for equal rights of men and women as one goal. CSW(Commission on the
Status of Woman) felt need to define general guarantees regarding
non-discrimination in the international instruments from gender perspective.
World Conference of the International Women's year was held in 1975 which led to
formation of some objectives and for their implementation, CSW was given the
drafting encouragement. In 1979, Convention on Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women got adopted identifying areas where there is
discrimination against women like in political rights, employment etc. It
required members to take measures in that direction. India created its National
Commission for Women(NCW) in 1992 and ratified the above convention in 1994 and
subsequently passed laws in this direction including DVA, Sexual Harassment at
Workplace etc.
The UDHR which was adopted as an aftermath to world war II in 1948 has more than
9 instruments based upon it reflecting its principles. UDHR in itself is
non-binding in nature but with time, instruments based upon it reflecting its
values gained binding force too with evolution.
Many a times, customs in usage which are still relevant from lens of current
times and circumstances also get codified in law. Like Section 7 of HMA which
provides for marriage to be solemnized as per customary rites and ceremonies by
virtue of which practices like 'Kanyadan' and 'Saptapadi' found its way.
Jurisprudence Interface with Political Science
The Political Science and Law merge together in plenty of aspects. There are
many theories of Political Science which are materialized by law by adopting
some regulating mechanism because end goal of law is to regulate human behavior.
Given instance 2 entails many such examples like expressions used in Preamble
i.e. sovereign, State etc. which are all political science concepts. In
addition, the form of governance viz.
Democratic republic also found in Preamble is political science concept. The
words "We the People of India" used in Constitution is reflective of the Social
Contract Theory. This theory along with Separation of Power amongst various
organs of Govt., citizenship are all concepts which germinated in political
science.
The scriptures such as Mahabharat go deep into 4 pursuits of humankind viz.
artha, kama, dharma and moksha. 'Artha' means economic or political activity.
The discussions pertaining to dharma(righteous conduct) revolves around
Samskaras or in other words character traits and of these traits one is 'Raja
Dharma'. As per this Raja Dharma, king is expected to not derive joy from
tyranny and create such environment where subjects can pursue happiness.
To a certain extent, propounders of this Raj Dharma kind of anticipates English
Magna Carta which is considered as first attempt by scholars to make king too
abide by law or what is called as Rule of Law where sovereign too is subject to
law and not above it.
It also requires individuals to be protected which is similar to Jeffersonian
idea of life and liberty which is enshrined under Indian Constitution under
Article 21 as well. This is reflective of how at that time too and in today's
time also, political activity of sovereign and what was considered to be
righteous conduct for him affected the law enforcement.
The relationship that exist between politics and law plays progressive as well
as safeguarding function. Both either separately or jointly encourage and
suppress development when it comes to the societal relations and also bring
justice and order.
It is the quest of law to make man law abiding citizen and State is in existence
for man's sake. The primal aim of State is development and progress of man. For
this full and free development of personality of an individual, certain rights
become essential and thus, State becomes duty bound to guarantee some
Fundamental rights in absence of which person loses his identity. So, any person
having rights and duties is termed as citizen and thus politics studies man as
citizen.
The customs, religion, legislature, interpretations etc. are some of sources of
law and issues emerging in this direction find themselves dependent upon
political concepts such as liberty, equality, justice, duties and rights etc.
Law has to study these political concepts.
Political science deals with functions of govt. as well as its organizations,
law-making process, different forms of govt. and pros and cons of each form etc.
Govt. in other words is a State's agent required for governing of law and it is
through govt. only that a State exercises its authority. There are three wings
of govt. viz. legislature i.e. law making organ, executive which is implementing
organ when it comes to law and judiciary which deals with interpreting of law.
So, in some way, govt. function is pertaining to law only and thus law and
political science overlap upto some extent there too.
Jurisprudence Interface with Economics
Article 39 of Indian Constitution falls within ambit of socialist theory of
economics. This is DPSP whereby different aspects such as equal pay for equal
work, distribution of wealth etc. have to be striven for by State. The
economists provide with 4 factors of production viz. Land, Labor, Capital and
Entrepreneurship and for each of these factors, there is a reward like rent for
land, wages, interest and profit for remaining three respectively. For each
factor and/or its respective reward, there exist a law regulating the same.
For instance, there is prevalent a Rent Control Act, Land Acquisition Act, Labor
Law, Trade Union Act, Industrial Disputes Act, Partnership Act etc. This is
evident as to how both social sciences i.e. law and economics are intermingled
with each other. The concept of monopoly and competition is studied in economics
but law provides for a Competition Act, 2002 which attempts to promote fair
competition and to regulate anti-competitive actions of various entities.
Article 19(1)(g) ensures right of each citizen to practice any trade,
profession, business etc. This reflects inter-relationship between law and
economics.
As per Raj Dharma also, the sovereign used to be considered duty bound to act in
such manner that the emergence of Matsya Nyaya or in layman terms, big fish
eating small fish kind of situation does not arise. This 'Matsa Nyaya' is
considered to be the most horrific as per Indian thinkers.
One of principles of 'Isavasaya Upanishad' is that state should not expropriate
property or in other words, strictly forbids coveting of wealth belonging to
others. This applies equally to not just kings but commoners also. These ideas
are evident that theories such as socialist theory of economics was well imbibed
in ancient Indian law as well.
The question that arises is what is the need to find relation between economics
and law? Since, law is study of all kinds of human behaviour while economics is
systematic study of economic behaviour, law has to deal with economic aspect of
behavior along in its quest to regulate human behaviour.
Jurisprudence Interface with Psychology
Law attempts to regulate human behaviour but what actually regulates human
behaviour? What manifests outward is merely reflection of what's in mind.
Therefore, in order to theorize as to what's going on in mind, law make
inquiries into the psychological aspect. Even from lens of 4 stages of crime,
first stage is the intention also called as mental or psycho stage. Post
thinking, a person proceeds to preparation part and other stages.
These inquiries have led to carving out of exceptions in the IPC entailed u/S 76
to 105. Like, when a person commits a crime being of unsound mind or by reason
of intoxication against his will, he is excused from commission of that crime.
Reason being that he is unable to understand nature and circumstances as to what
he is doing. When act is done within limits of private defence, or under fear/
misconception etc., that is excused.
These reflects absence of mens rea i.e. guilty mind and therefore excused. Law
needn't regulate the human behavior of resorting to private defence in dire
situation or for that matter, a person who is committing an offence on gunpoint
or a doctor who is causing miscarriage in order to save the life of mother.
In contract Act also, provisions like who is competent to contract, when a
consent is capable of being inferred as free consent and not on premise of undue
influence or coercion etc. are incorporated. If a person entering into contract
is due to either of these factors like fraud, coercion etc., the consent is not
free and is vitiated.
A person wishing to solemnize marriage should be of sound mind and not subject
to recurrent attacks of insanity or suffering from any mental disorder for a
marriage to be valid as per S. 5 of Hindu Marriage Act. When a woman indulging
into sexual intercourse on account of false assurance of marriage, consent is
said to be vitiated and amounts to rape u/S 375 as same is construed to be
obtained under misconception of fact u/S 90 of IPC4.
Absence of appropriate maturity for marriage is the reason child marriages are
banned. The terms used in IPC such as 'knowingly' or 'fraudulently' signifies
the mental state of a person like u/S 130 where a person knowingly aids a
prisoner of war etc., or knowingly joining an assembly capable of causing
disturbance of public peace u/S 151 etc.
In Evidence Act, any fact is relevant that is signifying or constituting a
motive amongst other things like preparation and can be either prior or a
subsequent conduct as per S. 8. Like a person purchasing a poison prior to the
same kind being used to kill a person becomes relevant or a person ran away
after hearing that police is coming post an offence is committed is also
relevant.
Henceforth, Psychological facts are proved in crimes by resorting to physical
facts wherever possible to prove mens rea. When any confession is caused by
inducement or threat or promise etc., court take it as irrelevant u/S 24 of
Evidence Act owing to it not given out of free will of mind. Same is the reason
for narco-analysis or brain mapping etc. techniques to have been banned. U/s 164
of CrPC also when a confession is being made, Magistrate is duty bound to
ascertain whether its voluntary or not.
In this way, it is evident that psychology plays a important role in law. The
theories like repentance theory, preventive theory, deterrent theory etc. also
relate to physiological traits. It will thus not be an understatement to say
that content of law cannot remain untouched from cerebral reflections.
Conclusion
When law is systematically and scientifically studied with other inter-dependent
sciences in periphery, it becomes extraversion from lawyer's perspective and in
this sharing of territory with other social sciences, reflections of various
disciplines upon jurisprudence of a particular field as synthesis is inevitable.
References:
- Cerar, Dr. Miro, The Relationship Between Law And Politics, 15(1) Annual
Survey Of International & Comparative Law 19, 19-41(2009).
- David G. Ritchie, On The Conception Of Sovereignty, 1 The Annals Of The
American Academy Of Political And Social Science 385, 385-411(1891).
- Jaithirth Rao, The Indian Conservative(Juggernaut 2019).
- J. Sai Deepak, India That Is Bharat 378-379(Bloomsbury 2021).
- Myneni. S.R., Political Science For Law Students(Allahabad Law Agency,
Faridabad 2018
- The Project Committee In Chairmanship Of B. Shiva Rao, The Framing Of
India's Constitution: Select Documents, 1 New Delhi: The Indian Institute Of
Public Administration.
- Report On Indian Constitutional Reforms, Superintendent Government
Printing, India, (1918).
- Dr. Br Ambedkar, Constitutent Assembly Of India Debates, 4 Nov. 1948.
- S. Vats And Shakuntala Mudgal (Ed.), Women And Society In Ancient
India(Om Publications, Faridabad 1999).
- Kaur, S., Women's Rights : A Historical Perspective, 70(1) The Indian
Journal Of Political Science 121, 121–130(2009
- K.I. Vibhute, Psa Pillai's Criminal Law(14th Ed. 2019).
End-Notes:
- Oposa V. Factoran Minors Oposa ,G.R. No. 101083 (224 SCRA 792).
- Animal Welfare Of India V. A Nagaraja And Ors, 595 (2014) 7 SCC.
- People For Ethical Treatment Of Animals V. Union Of India, Writ Petition
(PIL) (Lodging) No. 2490 Of 2004.
- State Of UP V. Naushad, AIR 2014 SC 384.
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