Bentham's Theory And It's Relevance In Today's Era by Ankit Awasthi, LLM 2nd Year, Hidayatullah National Law University

Analytical positivistic school started with the writings of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and was latter carried to its logical end by his disciple John Austin. Bentham’s classical work, “The Limits Of Jurisprudence Defined” written in 1782 and published in 1945 revealed how ardent Bentham was in conceiving the ends of law and mechanics of legal system. Bentham was utilitarian to the core, advocated codification of law and rejected judge-made law. His approach to sovereignty was similar to Austin; his definition of law was wide enough to cover subordinate legislation and administrative regulations; his analysis of rights and duties puts forward in embryo what was once thought to be a discovery of the twentieth century.

Bentham starts from  the assumption that nature has placed mankind under two sovereign masters, pleasure and pain. ‘It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the other hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne’’. The good or evil of an action, according to Bentham should be measured by the quantity of pain or pleasure resulting from it. Bentham’s principles of utility meant, ‘that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is the same thing in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness”.

Bentham talks of the four sanctions or sources of pain and pleasure. Considered Separately, they may be termed that physical, the political, the moral and the religious, The pleasures and Pains belonging to each of them are capable of giving binding force to any law or rule of conduct and allow them may be termed sanctions.

We can easily understand Bentham’s theory under following heads:-

1. Bentham’s utilitarian principles led to the growth and development of fully fledged jurisprudence Of political, social and economic utilitarianism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His Faith Laissez –Faire in economics Led him to believe that if every one looked after himself ,The general good, that is greatest happiness to the greatest number would be secured.
2. Bentham’s quest for legislative reform led to the notion of welfare state and removed lots of inequalities which had hampered the growth of democracy in England.
3. According to Bentham, the jurisprudence should be divided into two:

a. The  expositorial jurisprudence (what the law is)
b.The censorial jurisprudence(what the law ought to be) which was helpful in evolvinga terminology for unraveling the maze of concepts of law.

1. Bentam’s theories involuntarily introduces natural law principles uner the disguise of pleasure and pain,which is denied.
2. Bentham was averse to acknowledging natural rights of men,although,his yearning for private property,equality,andsecurity are the out come of natural rights.
3. Bentham overemphasized the power of the legislator and underestimated the individual discretion and flexibility of the judges in the application of law.
4. Bentham’s contribution to analytical jurisprudence although immense, yet is couched in semantics difficult to decipher.
5. Bentham’s overarching definition of law covers all laws, be they legislative, executive, judicial or administrative,howeverthe force behind these laws is obscure.

Bentham’s Relevancy in Today’s World:-

1.Bentham Theory of Sovereignity shows that in the present era also there shall be a political community.which shall have a body of persons acting to represent the will of the people. That is we can find the relevancy with respect to democratic form of govt and also there is conceptof participatory democracy.
2.Later on Bentham Theory was carried forward by the various analytical jurist to give the concept of sovereignity and also law made by sovereign authority.which is an essential feature of lawsmade by legislature of country.
3.Although Bentham rejected the idea of natural rights.he left the scope so ,as toinclude value such as Liberty,Quality,or property.
4.Protection from murder,imprisonment or any disposition from any property are all results of not only right to life or liberty or propertybut also due to the security that one gets from legally enforce duty.that results in greatest benefit for greater good.
Conclusion:-
Thus, the theories of Bentham have been adopted by various countries to sit their own political, cultural, economical and social conditions and has been modified from time to time to suit the changing needs of society.

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