My contemplation with regard to this topic is on the basis of a statement made by Friedman in a textbook of Jurisprudence. The essence of the statement is, that law stands some where between Philosophy and politics. One starts to think on the basis of a definition and hence you are inclined to know how I define the term Philosophy to establish the relationship between Law and Philosophy. Definitions in social sciences are always dangerous because they either limit the scope for a discussion or create an opportunity for others to criticize a thinker ruthlessly. Most of the persons with whom I come in to contact in daily life have adoration for philosophy and they are of the clear opinion that this particular science has no value in real life. Many times philosophers have evolved theories and these theories became the subject matter of the science of philosophy.

When even the great universities of the world are closing the departments of academic philosophy, one has to have a lot of courage in establishing the nexuses between Law and Philosophy. One idea that I visualized in the study of law is that most of the legal monuments and legal systems have been influenced by philosophic concepts. The positive school having a tremendous impact in the English legal system is the result of Bentham's constant assertion of utilitarian principle and vehement antagonism to aesthetic principle.

Marxian philosophy has had tremendous influence in the evolution of legal system in the 20th century. In fact the Preamble of the Constitution of India is an embodiment in Rousseauen conceptualization of justice, equality and liberty.

Human ingenuity is always in search of either values or gadgets to search for values makes man to study human nature and the search for gadgets makes man to study science of technology. Philosophy tries to analyze human aspirations and reasoning and science deals with enterprise and creativity. All great philosophers including religionists prescribe a particular pattern of human behavior without evaluating the possibility of materializing this prescription; they have analyzed human nature and suggested refinement.

Law has to deal with values, human nature and practical aspect of controlling human behavior with the technique of enforcement. Here is the distinction between philosophy and law to illustrate this point. We know that this world is full of evils. Philosophy deals with the concept of evil, it tries to analyze the sources of the event and it tries to discover the reasons for evil. It might even suggest theories to mitigate evils. Law also deals with evils, each evil has to be defined has an offence or a crime. It has to prescribe a procedure to control crime. It has to indicate punishments for each crime and ultimately law has to enforce the sanctions. All value judgments cannot be confined in this capsule of procedures in criminal law.

Therefore the emphasis in law has to be considered to practical aspect of human life. Moreover ideas of philosophy can be contemplated by a minute section of the community with an intellectual and analytical bent of mind, but law is for the generality of the community and it is for the control of human behavior to harmonize it with the social life

Therefore all philosophic aspirations cannot be incorporated in a legal system. As a consequence of this, practical philosophers with the political support may destroy the existing legal system. The freedom struggle in India led by Gandhi was a philosophic and political struggle against a legal system, which was practically all right, but that legal system failed because of lack of values.

In a humble way I am tempted to generalize that philosophy trains a person to analyze human nature and aspire to improve it, whereas understands human nature and tries to regulate it. Legal systems are changed and modified when philosophy imbibes values of human nature is changed to such a degree that these values invariably influence human nature. So I am of the view that philosophical conceptualizations have gradually altered human behavior and so law in its efforts to regulate human behavior has progressed. Any legal system is the mirror of a community trying to incorporate concepts to visualize the regulation of a better human society.

Prof. M.S.Venugopal
J.S.S Law College
Mysore.

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