1The 'rule of recognition' is a concept of:
- Holmes
- Austin
- Hart
- Pound
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Hart
It is the secondary rule that identifies valid rules of a legal system.
UGC NET LAW · CODE 058 · UNIT 01
UGC NET Law Unit 1: Jurisprudence Notes and MCQs
Unit 1 of UGC NET Law (code 058) is the theory unit. It asks who said what, which school a statement belongs to, and how a concept applies to a short fact situation. These notes list what the syllabus covers, the thinkers and cases to memorise, and sample questions you can try straight away.
- 10 syllabus topics
- 250+ free MCQs
- No sign-up
- Updated 11 October 2026
NET Law 058 is an independent study aid, not affiliated with UGC or NTA. Always check the official UGC NET syllabus and the current bare Acts.
What Unit 1 covers
Jurisprudence is mostly theory and names, so steady revision beats long reading sessions. The official syllabus lists 10 topics for this unit. Each is explained below with the points examiners most often use.
1Nature and sources of law
- Definitions of law: Austin (command of the sovereign), Salmond (principles applied by courts), Holmes (prediction of what courts will do), Kelsen (hierarchy of norms).
- Sources: legislation, precedent, custom and agreements, plus juristic writing. Salmond separates formal sources (the State's will) from material sources (where the content comes from).
- Precedent: stare decisis, ratio decidendi versus obiter dicta, binding and persuasive authority. Article 141 makes the Supreme Court's law binding on all courts in India.
- Custom: the usual requirements are antiquity, certainty, continuity, reasonableness and consistency with statute.
2Schools of jurisprudence
- Natural law: Aquinas (eternal, natural, divine and human law), Grotius, Lon Fuller, John Finnis.
- Analytical positivism: Bentham, Austin, H.L.A. Hart (rule of recognition, primary and secondary rules) and Kelsen's Pure Theory with the Grundnorm.
- Historical school: Savigny (Volksgeist) and Maine (status to contract).
- Sociological school: Ehrlich, Duguit, Roscoe Pound (social engineering, balancing of interests).
- Realism: Holmes, Llewellyn and Jerome Frank. Law is what courts actually do.
3Law and morality
- The separation thesis of positivism: validity of a law does not depend on its moral merit.
- The Hart–Devlin debate on enforcing morality, after the Wolfenden Report (1957).
- The Hart–Fuller debate on whether an immoral rule can still be law.
- Fuller's eight principles of legality, called the inner morality of law, and Dworkin's idea of law as integrity.
4Concept of rights and duties
- Hohfeld's eight jural concepts and their correlatives: claim and duty, privilege and no-right, power and liability, immunity and disability.
- Kinds of rights: legal and moral, in rem and in personam, positive and negative, proprietary and personal, primary and secondary.
- Elements of a legal right: the holder, the object, the content and the title.
- Duties can be positive or negative, primary or secondary, absolute or relative.
5Legal personality
- Natural persons and juristic (artificial) persons. Companies, the State, idols and institutions can be juristic persons.
- Theories of corporate personality: fiction, concession, realist and bracket (symbolist) theories.
- Hindu idol as a juristic person: Pramatha Nath Mullick v. Pradyumna Kumar Mullick (1925).
- Rivers: the Uttarakhand High Court declared the Ganga and Yamuna legal persons in 2017, and the Supreme Court stayed that order.
6Concepts of property, ownership and possession
- Ownership: the right of ultimate title with the widest rights of use, enjoyment and disposal. It can be sole or co-ownership, corporeal or incorporeal, legal or equitable.
- Possession: corpus (physical control) and animus (intention to hold). Savigny and Ihering differ on how much animus is needed.
- Finder cases: Armory v. Delamirie (1722) and Bridges v. Hawkesworth (1851).
- Possession in fact and in law, and the link between possession and ownership.
7Concept of liability
- Civil liability aims at compensation. Criminal liability aims at punishment.
- Strict liability (Rylands v. Fletcher, 1868) and absolute liability (M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, 1987).
- Vicarious liability, from the maxim qui facit per alium facit per se.
- Mens rea and actus reus. Damnum sine injuria and injuria sine damno (Ashby v. White).
8Law, poverty and development
- Access to justice and legal aid: Article 39A, the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 and NALSA.
- Public interest litigation and the expansion of Article 21, starting with Hussainara Khatoon v. State of Bihar (1979) on speedy trial for undertrials.
- Amartya Sen's capability approach (Development as Freedom, 1999).
- The right to development: UN Declaration on the Right to Development, 1986.
9Global justice
- John Rawls: justice as fairness, the original position and veil of ignorance (A Theory of Justice, 1971) and The Law of Peoples (1999).
- Cosmopolitan views (Thomas Pogge, Peter Singer) against statist views of obligation.
- Amartya Sen, The Idea of Justice (2009): a comparative approach that rejects a search for the perfect institution.
- Martha Nussbaum's list of central capabilities. Nozick's entitlement theory as a contrast.
10Modernism and post-modernism
- Modernism trusts reason, universal truth and grand narratives about progress.
- Post-modernism: Lyotard's incredulity towards metanarratives, Foucault on power and knowledge, Derrida on deconstruction.
- Critical Legal Studies and the indeterminacy thesis. Feminist jurisprudence as a related critique.
Quick reference tables
| Thinker | Idea or work |
|---|---|
| John Austin | Command theory; law as command of the sovereign backed by sanction |
| Hans Kelsen | Pure Theory of Law; Grundnorm |
| H.L.A. Hart | The Concept of Law (1961); rule of recognition; primary and secondary rules |
| Savigny | Volksgeist; the historical school |
| Roscoe Pound | Law as social engineering; theory of interests |
| O.W. Holmes | Law as prediction of what courts will do; the bad man's view |
| Lon Fuller | The Morality of Law; eight principles of legality |
| Ronald Dworkin | Law as integrity; rights as trumps; Taking Rights Seriously |
| John Rawls | A Theory of Justice (1971); veil of ignorance |
| Amartya Sen | The Idea of Justice (2009); capability approach |
| Robert Nozick | Anarchy, State, and Utopia; entitlement theory |
| Wesley Hohfeld | Eight fundamental jural concepts |
Landmark cases to revise
Pramatha Nath Mullick v. Pradyumna Kumar Mullick1925
A Hindu idol is a juristic person that can hold property through its shebait.
Salomon v. A. Salomon & Co. Ltd.1897
A company has a legal personality separate from its members.
Yogendra Nath Naskar v. CIT1969
A Hindu idol is a juristic entity that can be assessed to tax.
Mohd. Salim v. State of Uttarakhand2017
High Court declared the Ganga and Yamuna legal persons; the Supreme Court stayed the order.
Rylands v. Fletcher1868
Strict liability for escape of dangerous things from land used non-naturally.
M.C. Mehta v. Union of India1987
Absolute liability for hazardous industries, with no exceptions.
Armory v. Delamirie1722
A finder has rights over the thing against everyone except the true owner.
Hussainara Khatoon v. State of Bihar1979
Speedy trial is part of Article 21; major step for legal aid and PIL.
Practise Jurisprudence MCQs topic by topic
Beyond the six samples, all 255 questions for this unit are on their own pages, grouped by syllabus topic, with the answer key on the page.
- Nature and Sources of Law (Part 1) (17)
- Nature and Sources of Law (Part 2) (16)
- Schools of Jurisprudence (Part 1) (19)
- Schools of Jurisprudence (Part 2) (19)
- Schools of Jurisprudence (Part 3) (17)
- Law and Morality (18)
- Concept of Rights and Duties (24)
- Legal Personality (15)
- Concepts of Property, Ownership and Possession (22)
- Concept of Liability (20)
- Law, Poverty and Development (9)
- Global Justice (11)
Try 6 sample questions
Tap “Show answer” after you have tried each one. These come from the 250+ MCQs in this unit.
2Which case held that a Hindu idol is a juristic person?
- Keshav Singh
- Pramatha Nath Mullick v. Pradyumna Kumar Mullick
- Shah Bano
- Bandhua Mukti Morcha
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Pramatha Nath Mullick v. Pradyumna Kumar Mullick
The Privy Council recognised the idol as a legal person capable of holding property.
3'A Theory of Justice' (1971) is by:
- Ronald Dworkin
- John Rawls
- Robert Nozick
- Amartya Sen
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. John Rawls
Rawls developed justice as fairness, the original position and the veil of ignorance.
4Corpus and animus are the two elements of:
- Ownership
- Possession
- Easement
- Trust
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Possession
Possession requires physical control (corpus) and intention to hold (animus).
5A validly enacted statute is morally objectionable. A legal positivist would say it is:
- Invalid for immorality
- Valid law though possibly unjust
- Void ab initio
- Mere custom
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Valid law though possibly unjust
Validity depends on source, not on moral merit.
6Ownership differs from possession mainly because ownership is:
- A right of ultimate title and residual control
- Mere physical control
- Always temporary
- Never transferable
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. A right of ultimate title and residual control
Possession is factual control; ownership is the most extensive right over a thing.
How to study this unit
- Learn thinkers in pairs: the school, the book and one signature phrase. Most Unit 1 questions are matching questions in disguise.
- Write out Hohfeld's correlatives once from memory. They are tested often and the pairs are easy to swap by mistake.
- For liability and personality, learn the cases above with their year. Examiners often ask which case laid down a rule.
Planning your time? See the UGC NET Law preparation plans for 6 months, 3 months, 1 month or 2 weeks, or check the cut-off trend to set a target score.
Last updated: . Notes are a revision aid and not legal advice. Spotted a mistake? Write to netlawverse@gmail.com.