SANCTION THEORY OF JURISPRUDENCE: SOLUTION TO COVID-19
In 1832, John Austin
lectures were published under the title – “The Province of Jurisprudence
determined” where it denied Law,
properly so called, as a command of
sovereign backed by the sanction. There are four basic elements of Austin theory
of positive law- Sovereign, Command, Duty and sanction. His theory is been criticized on various
outcomes such as customs, judge made law, International law, command theory,
relation of law and morals over-looked.
In spite of the above
mentioned criticism, the author would throw some light upon the sanction
element and opined its linkage to the present pandemic situation in India and try
to justify the said theory considering the casual behavior of citizens.
The Austin theory is largely
criticized for the reason being that the sanction is not the only means to
induce the obedience and law is obeyed because of its acceptance by the
community. In furtherance of same, law is nothing but a will of the public and
thus cannot be said as mere command of sovereign. Keeping this argument into
consideration, there are few facet which need to be consider. Firstly, if law
is reflection of will of people, then who would justify the ill-effects of one
community of public over another community of people. This argument gets
more balance in this covid-19 situation where Hon’ble Prime minister has
requested the public to maintain Jantacurfew. It is nothing but a classic
example to criticize the critics of sanction element.
The Hon’ble Prime minister has given public an occasion to express its will to govern itself in a particular day for a particular situation. The same stands followed by one community however at the same time the other community of the public couldn’t followed the general will of the public. This is exactly a situation where poses a question as who will justify the ill-effects of one community over another where the general will of public is not adhered. This, creates a need of sanction element to the public will. The sanction serve twin purposes, firstly a fear to comply and secondly to control the ill-effects created by contrary community of the Public.
The Hon’ble Prime minister has given public an occasion to express its will to govern itself in a particular day for a particular situation. The same stands followed by one community however at the same time the other community of the public couldn’t followed the general will of the public. This is exactly a situation where poses a question as who will justify the ill-effects of one community over another where the general will of public is not adhered. This, creates a need of sanction element to the public will. The sanction serve twin purposes, firstly a fear to comply and secondly to control the ill-effects created by contrary community of the Public.
Janta-curfew and lockdown
could have ignored the ill-effect of contrary community if same was backed by
the sanction element. Hence, in this manner, the john Austin theory of
sanction justifies under present case the punishment as ,out of many, solution and is a need to control the
ill-effect created by contrary community
of public who believe themselves to be exception to the binding rule of will of
public and therefore sanction is the only way to deal with this pandemic
covid-19.
DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions
expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily
reflect the official policy or position of any agency of the Indian government.
Examples of analysis performed within this article are only examples. They
should not be utilized in real-world analytic products as they are based only
on very limited and dated open source information. Assumptions made within the
analysis are not reflective of the position of any Indian government
State.
The author is a Practicing
company secretary and founder of Budhiraja & co. Further, he is a Second
Year Law student at faculty of law, University of Delhi and a Para Legal
volunteer with Delhi State Legal Service authority and is an active Participant
in Moot Court society of his college.
+919654055315
Very apt Shubham. In a situation when medical sciences have hardly anything to offer for a rescue, social sanction and only a strict deterrent from the state can help. When people are not at all ready to understand the gravity of a situation which ultimately would lead to the trouble of whole community, they must be forced to follow those who understand it. Much time hasn't passed since the social contract theorists opined man as beast!
ReplyDeleteThank you kumar abhishek for very kind reader of the observation cited.
DeleteI second the opinion and observation framed and cited by youbin regard to this pandemic situation. Rights and Duties go hand in hand.