John Austin (legal philosopher)
John Austin (
1790 -
1859) was a noted British
jurist.
Austin served in the army in
Sicily and
Malta, but sold his commission to study law. He was called to the Bar in 1818. He discontinued his practice shortly after, devoted himself to the study of law as a science, and became Professor of Jurisprudence in the
University of London (now
University College London) 1826-32. Thereafter he served on various Royal Commissions.
His works exercised a profound influence on the views of jurisprudence held in England. These include
The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (1832), and
Lectures on Jurisprudence.
John Austin is best known for his work developing the theory of
legal positivism. He attempted to clearly separate moral rules from "positive law."
Austin was greatly influenced in his utilitarian approach to law by
Jeremy Bentham. Austin defined positive law as commands from the government that create a duty in the governed and are backed by a threat of sanction from the government should the command not be followed. In this way he defined law primarily in terms of the power to control others.
Austin's style of writing not only resulted in clear theories but makes those theories readily accessible to his readers.
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* Wilfred E. Rumble,
The Thought of John Austin : Jurisprudence, Colonial Reform, and the British Constitution London ; Dover, N.H. : Athlone Press, 1985
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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
