Why Is It Bentham Who Founded Analytical Jurisprudence

Though being an outstanding jurist, philosopher, reformer, Jeremy Bentham have been always neglected by us.Since Mr.QiChao Liang wrote the paper called"dean Bentham's theory of utilitarianism"in 1902,he had been getting known by people. However, studies about Bentham of the domestic intelligentsia are often limited in his ideas of utilitarian theory of ethics, studies about law are relatively insufficient. Besides, as far as the field of law is concerned, studies about Bentham have largely confined to his criminal thought, legislative theory,but his pioneering contribution to the analytical jurisprudence has been paid very little systematic attention to. A brief view of this, his specific contributions to analytical jurisprudence mainly reflected in the book called Of Laws in General——in the deenchanted position,the universal system of statute law of positivism was described detailedly in three dimensions of macro, micro and methods.After Bentham passed away one hundred years, the manuscript called Of Laws in General were discovered by the world. In the field of analytical jurisprudence history, the text's meaning on Bentham even can compare with Paris Manuscripts's meaning on Marx. The greatest value of the book is that it is confirms that Bentham founded analytical jurisprudence. The topic of this paper is derived from it. By interpreting the text, Bentham's pioneering contributions to analytical jurisprudence will be systematically combed and studied.The text consists of six parts:In the introduction part, it briefly introduces the situtation of study at home and abroad, which relates to his thought, especially Of Laws in General. It puts up the core point of this paper, that the Of Laws in General confirms the fact that Bentham founded analytical jurisprudence in intellectual history. Moreover, the introduction part also points out that the research idea of the paper is to show Bentham's original sense of analytical jurisprudence by interpreting Of Laws in General as the main object,ultimately unburying the fact that Bentham is the founder of the analytical jurisprudence.In the first chapter"Background and significance in Of Laws in General", the first section makes the necessary explanation to the author Bentham with the method of sociology of knowledge, in order to uncover the external factors of impacting Bentham's thought.The second section illuminates the background of writing——crisis of the common law. The third section analyzes the meaning of selecting the text in detail.The second chapter"Sense of analytical jurisprudence in Of Laws in General",by describing the universal system of statute law of positivism in detail, restates the Bentham's deenchanted display of the positive law in three dimensions of macro, micro and methods. Detailed demonstration in this chapter will help establish sub-arguments that Bentham is representative of analytical jurisprudence.In the third chapter"Study of original sense of analytical jurisprudence", the Bentham's inherent tension between utilitarianism and analytical jurisprudence is firstly revealed. Then the process of co-deconstruction of the common law is refinedly analyzed, in which the inherent tension between two theories is overcame. The original question that Bentham in the tradition of utilitarian philosophy possesses the sense of analytical jurisprudence can be answered.At the end of this chapter, by comparing Bentham's thought to Marsilius's, Hobbes's and Austin's, the original status of Bentham analytical jurisprudence history is revealed,as well as the impact and significance to the whole school.Conclusions reiterates the thesis of the paper that reveals that Bentham is the founder of analytical jurisprudence.