Of Laws in General

Abstract

A law is defined as an assemblage of signs declarative of a volition conceived or adopted by a sovereign regarding the conduct of subjects within a state. Analytical precision in jurisprudence requires examining a law through its source, subjects, objects, extent, aspects, force, and expression. Every complete law integrates a directive part, which specifies required or prohibited acts, with a sanctional or incitative part that relies on motives derived from the political sanction. The distinction between civil and penal branches of jurisprudence is an organizational artifact rather than a substantive one; the civil branch consists primarily of the circumstantiative or expository matter required to define the conditions of an act, while the penal branch provides mandatory force through the denunciation of punishment.

Using a logic of the will, legal mandates are categorized by their aspects—command, prohibition, non-command, and permission—and their logical relations, such as opposition and concomitance. Fictitious legal entities, including rights, duties, and powers, find their meaning only through resolution into real entities, such as persons, acts, and sensations of pleasure or pain. While statute law permits the creation of a complete and unified code by individuating specific duties, customary law remains inherently incomplete, consisting of judicial fictions and particular orders that lack general legislative signs. This systematic framework allows for the comparison of different legal systems and the reduction of complex customary practices into a precise, statutory body of law. – AI-generated abstract.