Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. POSITIVE LAW. A Law, in the sense in which that term is employed in Positive Jurisprudence, is enforced by a sovereign political authority. It is thus distinguished not only from all rules which, like the principles of morality and the so-called laws of honour and of fashion, are enforced by an indeterminate authority, but also from all rules enforced by a determinate authority which is either, on the one hand, superhuman, or, on the other hand, politically subordinate. In order to emphasise the fact that laws, in the strict sense of the term, are thus authoritatively imposed, they are described as ' positive ' laws. It is to such laws that the following definitions will be Defini- found to have reference : — "Otra y' andv To Kparovv Tjjs T1oAfws (iovXfvtraufvov and XP1 ypaj/1], vojuos /taXirai 1. 'O v6jj.os fort Aoyos wptt1jueVos, Ka.6' ojuoAoytdz; Lex est generale iussum populi aut plebis, rogante magi- stratu. Atteius Capito 3. 1 Xen. Mem. i. c. 2. 43. Arist. Ehet. ad Alex. i. 4. 3 Apnd A. Gell. x. c. 20. Chap. iv. The speech of him who by right commands somewhat to be done or omitted. Hobbes1. A portion of discourse by which expression is given to an extensively applying and permanently enduring act or state of the will, of a person or persons in relation to others, in relation to whom he is, or they are, in a state of superiority. Bentham 2. Das positive Recht durch die Sprache verkorpert, und mit absoluter Macht versehen, heisst das Gesetz. Savigny 3. Die von der hb'chsten Staatsgewalt aufgestellten objectiven Rechts-satze. Dr. Bruns 4. Most of the terms employed in our definition of positive law have already been sufficiently discussed It remains however to explain what is meant by ' a sovereign political authority.' ... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.