God Arises
Religion and Society
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(1790-1859) who said: “Law is what is imposed by a
superior on an inferior, be that superior the king or
the legislature.”
While this appears to be a practicable theory, it is
actually bereft of any valid logic, in that it accords
the jurist a superior position without any necessary
insistence on the criteria of justice being adhered to.
But the human intellect could never concede that
justice as a concept might be separated from the
law. When the law imposes a judgement on
someone, it is considered valid only when it is
based on justice. As G.W. Paton observes, Austin’s
definition of the law reduces it to the “command of
a sovereign.”
1
Although in practice, all over the world, laws are
made and brought into force through political
power, a number of eminent jurists have felt it
necessary to carry out academic research on the
principles of law. Their quest, however, has led
them no further than the conclusion that, in this
matter, arriving at an agreed upon criterion is a
sheer impossibility. The reason is that the aim of the
quest calls for the determination of legal norms on
