Jurisprudence

Jurisprudence is the scientific study of law, including:

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• Legal history, including legal historiography and hermeneutics;
• Legal philosophy;
• Legal science, e.g. the psychology of law, legal anthropology, etc.
• Legal theory, the collective body of legal theory as exemplified in the record of legal cases, controversies and questions;
• Application of legal principles and theories to legal problems, especially classic or recurrent legal questions;
• Application within law of extra-legal theories and practices, such as the employment of distributive research techniques in legal analysis;
• Comparative examination of law as a field with other fields of study or endeavour, e.g., analysis of Western trial court procedures in terms of Classical Greek theatre; and
• Sub-categories of jurisprudence, examinging law in particular social, political or other contexts, such as -
• 1. Ethnojurisprudence, jurisprudence in and of a particular ethno-cultural group, such as tribal African customary law (derivation of the term apparently by analogy with ethnomusicology)
• 2. Socio-political jurisprudence, jurisprudence as documentary of social and political change (e.g., the study of law as it relates to the status of women is a form of socio-political jurisprudence).

Jurisprudence also includes legal pedagogy, that is, the teaching of law and legal subjects, as far as legal pedagogy concerns the education and role of lawyers; hence it may also include reflections on applied legal arts and methodology (aka "applied law"), such as functional lawyering skills, negotiation techniques, legal composition, document drafting, research techniques, and so on.

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Etymologically, per the American Heritage Dictionary, jurisprudence is the English for jurisprudentia. This is the Late Latin form of a compound word, originally juris + prudens (a contraction of providens, from the verb providere, "to provide"). The best English definition of jurisprudentia is probably " legal knowledge."

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'Juris' (both pronounced in Latin) is the genitive form of Jus meaning "law." So, 'juris' means "of law" or "legal." In particular, 'juris' refers to oral legal tradition and to functional applications of law, to and in particular sets of facts and circumstances. The word "jury" is also an English form of 'jur/juris,' and juries do just as the term implies: apply law to facts and circumstances, and draw a conclusion there from on the defendant's culpability.

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'Prudentia,' meaning "knowledge" in Latin, translates directly to English as "prudence." The native English word is "wisdom," which also originally meant "knowledge." In either case, one behaves prudently or wisely because one has knowledge of the possible consequences of a particular action.

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Jurisprudence: Modern jurisprudence ►