dennis lloyd

8/22/2019 Dennis Lloyd

1/5

English jurist Dennis Lloyd extremely emphasizes on the effects of legal idea. He pointsout that it is undeniable that legal idea has contributed a lot to human being.Considering the world tight situations, if civilization wants to live on, the dependence onthis fundamental idea is stronger.

Dennis Lloyd Biography lawyer,

born 22 October 1915,

member of the bar, professor of jurisprudence in London University, Dean ofFaculty of Law, Member of different law reform organizations and film institutes

married 1940 Ruth Tulla (two daughters),

died 31 December 1992

jurist, lawyer, politician, law reformer, devotee of the British film industry

man of culture and erudition, at home in different disciplines, at ease withdifferent worlds.

he was essentially a private person, a family man, a loving husband for 52 years

and a father of two daughters of whom he was proud.

It may be that Dennis Lloyd would wish to be remembered for his personal qualities, hishumanity and sensitivity, his empathy with the problems of others. But it is as a scholarthat most will remember him.

In all this work there was emerging a view of law. Lloyd was to come to call it the 'idea'of law. As found in these disparate studies and in his very successful Pelican The Ideaof Law (1964), his idea of law is functionalist and consensus-based. He had a vision oflaw as competent to solve any problem, whether it concerned the right to work (thesubject of his inaugural lecture), homosexual behaviour or the control of outer space.

He believed that the idea of law which would prevail 'will be one which emphasises notso much the self-contained character of law, but rather its function as an instrument ofsocial cohesion and social progress'.

For Lloyd, law was not so much 'logic' as 'experience'. He was no formalist and hereadily appreciated the social, economic and political context of law. Ultimately, the ideaof law that we find in Lloyd's jurisprudence is a vision consonant with Lloyd the man: aliberal in the best sense of that tradition, a believer in the importance of rights, in thevalue of the rule of law: as he himself puts it (also in The Idea of Law) in the value of lawas the 'essential guarantee for all those freedoms which are looked upon as vital to thegood life in a social democracy'. He saw law as a building-block of civilisation.

IS LAW NECESSARY

Dennis Lloyd

Main Thesis: The answer to the question lies on your perception of mans nature.

Whether or not man is in nature good or evil would give us an answer to the question of

necessity of law.


2/5

I. The Nature of Man

A. Man is by nature evil

Such nature should be curbed, if not, it will lead to total destruction of man.

Law then is the indispensable restraint upon the forces of evil. Anarchy or absence of law is the supreme horror to be warded of.

B. Man is by nature good.

People who believe in this nature of man seek to find the sources of the ills of

mans present condition.

The defect in mans social environment is the true cause of the evils, which afflict

him.

The legal system is the source of mans tribulations.

II. The Law and the forces of evil.

A. Whether you see man as by nature evil or good, he still needs laws .

Mans nature is evil thus no social progress could be attained without the

restraints of penal laws.

Man is good but due to sin, corruption or some internal weakness, mans original

and true nature had become distorted and thus required for its control the rigors

of a primitive system of laws.

B. Idyllic Primitive Scene refers to the golden ages where everything was in order

no external system of legal rules, life is simpler.

This served as a pattern for a movement toward a return to nature --going back

to mans primitive, unspoiled nature where there is a happier society in which

uncorrupted natural impulse will replace coercive regimes.

III. Mans nature is evil

A. By Geography

China (Legists) argued that mans nature was initially evil and that the good

ways in which men often acted were due to the influence of the socialenvironment, particularly the teaching of rituals and the restraints of penal laws.

India (shastra) men are by nature passionate and covetous and tha tif let to

themselves, the world would resemble a devils workshop where the logic of the

fish (means: big ones would eat the little ones)would reign.

Western Europe

o Bodin original state of man was that of disorder, force, violence


3/5

o Hobbes the life of primitive man was a state of perpetual warfare, where

individual existence was bruttish, nasty and short

o Hume without law, government and coercion, human society could not

be exist and so law is a natural necessity of man.

o Machiavelli men are bad and will not observe faith towards you(traitors),

you should not trust them.

B. The Golden Age

Ovidman dont need laws because it is written in his nature, yet everyone is

safe because conscience is their guard.

Seneca in the primitive innocence/state, men lived together in peace and

happiness, having all things in common, there is no private property; no slavery,

no coercive government; no corruption; everyone is free and equal.

This primitive innocence was a result of ignorance rather than virtue

This ignorance is the source of social evils later on. Such social evils

necessitated an introduction of regime of law

Corruption = a product of avarice, fall of man

C. Judeo-Christian

Paradise is the equivalent of the primitive innocence

The necessity of human law and coercive state, private property and slavery was

derived from mans sinful nature, which resulted from the Fall.

Law was a natural necessity after the fall to mitigate the effects of sin.

Consequences of the fall:o Family represented the coercive domination of the male against the

freedom and equality of the primitive paradise.

o Slavery sins is a fit subject of enslavement.

IV. The theory of law

1. Agustine

State-law and coercion are not themselves sinful but are part of the divine order

as a means of restraining human vices. Due to sin.

The hope of mankind is not in the sphere of social reform but rather by the

attainment of a commonwealth of Gods elect, a mystical society, which would

replace the existing regime dominated by mans sinful nature.

Law is a natural necessity to curb mans sinful nature.

2. By 13th century


4/5

There was a change in emphasis due to Aristotelian influences

Mans nature might be corrupt and sinful but he still possessed a natural virtue

which is capable of development (Aristotles natural development of the state

from mans social impulses)

3. Aquinas

States is not a necessary evil but a natural foundation in the development of

human welfare.

Law is a beneficent force, not only in restraining evil but also for setting him upon

the path of social harmony and welfare.

Law then is not an negative force but a positive instrument for realizing those

goals towards which mans good or social impulses tend to direct him.

V. Man is by nature good (anarchist viewpoint)

The concept of law is based on a wistful primitivism, nostalgia of the primeval past.

1. Plato

pins his faith in a system of education which will not only produce adequate

rulers but will also serve to condition the rest of the population to the appropriate

obedience.

2. Adam Smith

laissez faire; free play of economic forces which could be assumed to work

towards ultimate harmony. coercive law may be used to protect private property (an indispensable feature of

free market)

3. Godwin

evils of the society arose not from mans corrupt or sinful nature but from effects

of oppressive human institutions.

Man is capable of unlimited progress, only coercive institutions and ignorance

stand in the way.

Voluntary cooperation and education would enable all law to be abolished.

4. Bakunin and Kropotkin

State, law, coercion and private property were the enemies of human happiness

and welfare.

5. Tolstoy

Man is universally good; there is no need for law.


5/5

6. Maude

Remove the law and induce men to believe that no fixed code or judgment

should exist; and the only people who will be able to get on at all decently will

those who follow the traditional way of life.

7. Marx

Law is nothing but a coercive system devised to maintain the privileges of the

property-owning class.

By the revolution of a classless society would be brought into being, the law and

the state would wither away as being no longer needed to support oppressive

regimes.

Looks forward when social harmony will be attuned to the natural goodness of

man, unimpeded by such environmental snares as the institution of private

property.

VI. Innate Goodness and the price of Civilization

Man at the primitive level is innately good and that it is the social and political

organization of civilized life, which has introduced violence, and disorder which

led to systems of legal coercion.

1. Elliot Smith

most of the friction and discord of our lives are obviously the result of such

exasperations and conflicts as civilization creates. The artificial aim, which is the object of envy and malice, is the source of conflict.

2. Herbert Read

The anarchist conceives society as a balance or harmony of groups; the only

difficulty is their harmonious interrelation.

Universal decentralization of authority and simplification of life is essential.

Anarchism means a society without arkhos (ruler); it does not mean a society

without laws and does it does not mean a society without order.

In the simplest form of society, some system of rules is necessary (ex. rules on

family relationship, food-gathering, mating etc.)

Such society without rules is not just a society without order but the very negation

of society its

dennis lloyd

Documents