5. Formation of Positivism: Bentham and Austin
The preceding
sections explained how the Reformation produced a crisis in natural law.
Because of the crisis people started to search for a new legal ideology, and in that search we
can see the origins of positivism. However, positivism had to wait for the efforts of Jeremy
Bentham and John Austin before it was properly formulated and expounded. Even then it was
not finished because, as will be discussed in the next section, developments have been made by
latter day jurists such as Kelsen and Hart.
In the sense in which it was explained by Bentham and Austin, positivism consists of several
elements which can be broadly stated in the following way…
In the first paragraph the reader is fully informed of where the section fits in to
the work. In the second paragraph there
is a summary of the content of the
section. Thus the reader is left in no doubt about the writer’s meaning and
argument.
Description of Principle
When describing a principle there is an almost natural order. Commence with a
brief statement of the principle. Proceed then to its origin, a more detailed
statement of the principle, some illustrations (for example
an obvious one, a
not so obvious one and an interesting one), exceptions, uses, difficulties and
helpful comments. Finally, you should make clear its contribution to the
surrounding argument.
Relationships
There are some obvious relationships in just about any subject. Try to
organise ideas in a manner which exposes relationships -
put like with like,
specify the name of the class which a group of ideas constitute, state the
alternative classes and ascertain how these classes connect. Make sure that the
status of each item is clear. Indicate the status of a proposition, for example,
that it is a principle, an illustration, an exception, or an example.
Events
Events are generally best presented in chronological order, but it often helps to
organise them, additionally or alternatively, by reference to key events or
transactions. In doing this, keep in mind the advice to journalists about writing
a story: cover the five Ws – who? what? when? where? and why?
Tables
Where a text has tables, the information in the table should be organised in
some way. Commonly writers use standard means of arranging material such
as alphabetical, and chronological order. Other possibilities are to order by
quantity, size, weight or rank. To say the obvious, using a simple and easy to
 |
 |
 |