Social engineering by the Roscoe Pound || Sociological School ||
In this article, we will discuss the
theory of social engineering propounded by the jurist Roscoe Pound, and also
discuss its interest theory and its criticism. Let’s begin.
Introduction:-
Man is a social animal and society is needed
to live life, work and enjoy life. A group of individuals forms a society.
Society has become an indispensable condition for human life to develop its
personality. Therefore, society and human life always go hand in hand. Every
human being is also born with certain desires and expectations which are
inherent in nature. From childhood to old age, every human being expects his
wish to be fulfilled, for which a conflict of his desires or claims arises,
which falls under the term of interest. It is impossible to fulfill all the
desires of man. Hence the concept of social engineering has come up to fulfill
the desire of maximum human beings for the welfare of society and which was
formulated by Roscoe Pound.
The
Concept of Social Engineering:-
Roscoe
Pound was one of the greatest leaders of the sociological school of
jurisprudence. He introduced the doctrine of "social engineering"
which aims to build an efficient structure of society resulting in the
satisfaction of maximum wants with the minimum of friction and waste. This
involved a rebalancing of competing interests.
According
to Pound, sociological jurisprudence should ensure that lawmaking, interpreting
and applying law take account of social facts. Pound linked the lawyer's work
to engineering. The purpose of social engineering is to build as much of a
scientific structure of society as possible, which requires the satisfaction of
the maximum of wants and with the minimum of friction and waste. It is the job
of a jurist to assist the country by identifying and classifying interests that
are protected by law.
Roscoe
Pound's social engineering theory is an American correlation to the interests
of German jurisprudence. Roscoe Pound described the work of modern law as
social engineering. Social engineering refers to the balance of competing
interests in society. He observed: “Law is the body of knowledge and experience
with the aid of which a large part of social engineering is carried on. It is more than the body of rules. It has conceptions and standards for conduct
and for the decision, but it has also doctrines and modes of professional
thought and professional rules of art by which the precepts for conduct and
decision are applied and given effect.
Like an engineer’s formulae, they represent experience, scientific
formulations of experience and logical development of the formulations, but
also inventive skill in conceiving new devices and formulating their
requirements by means of a developed technique.”
Jurisprudence
thus becomes a science of social engineering which means a balance between
competing interests in society. Pound assigns the jurist with a commission. He
follows a method that a jurist would follow for social engineering. He must
study the real social implications of legal institutions and legal principles,
study the means of making legal rules effective, a sociological study in
preparation for lawmaking, a study of judicial method, a sociological legal
history.
Pound's
theory that interest is the main subject of law and the act of law is the
satisfaction of human wants and desires. It is the function of law to make a
‘valuation of interests’, in other words, to make a selection of socially more
valuable interests and to secure them. All this is nothing more than an
experiment. That is why Prof.C.K.Allen describes Pound’s approach as
‘Experimental Jurisprudence’.
Interest
Theory:-
To
understand their real theory, one need not deviate from the wealth of
information, which is worth more than half a century of academic work. Pound's
real contribution to the school of sociopolitical jurisprudence is indeed in
his discussion of "legal interests" and "jural postulates”.
Legal
Interest:-
According
to Pound, there are three categories of legal interests, namely private
(individual), public and social interests.
Individual
interests are "claims or demands or desires immediately involved in
personal life and are vocal in the title of that life." Individual
interests are emphasized for personal life titles. This logically leads to the fact
that as these interests by and large only involve the individual, interests
fall within the purview of private law, although in actual equilibrium this is
a generalization that may not always be true.
The
public interest is "assertiveness in a politically organized society
and the claims or demands or desires embodied in life in the title of that
organization. They are generally regarded as the claims of a politically
organized society thought of as a legal entity.” These types of interests are articulated
in the title or for a politically organized society. Political interests can be
generalized within the purview of public law including criminal laws, although
there is clearly an overlap with personal interests.
Social
interests were originally included by Pound as a separate and important set
of interests under which they were described as the claims or demands or
desires involved in social life in a civilized society. It is not uncommon to
regard them as claims of such a social group. These interests have been
regularly associated with the concept of security. Thus, an important part of
protection is for society to enjoy an organized legal system within a political
organization, which may also fall in the public interest because a political
organization requires the existence of some legal control that can be only
provided by the legal system. This issue obscures the difference between public
and social interests and the Pound himself points to the issue.
The
three types of interests are differentiated so that they are balanced against
each other, which is the aim of sociological jurisprudence. However, Pound did
not really insist on having these interests completely separate from each
other. As described above, there is a level of distinction while the overlap
between interests is also evident as they are ultimately three perspectives of
a set of interests that exist in terms of unity and differentiation.
Criticism
of the theory:-
Despite
Pound's great contribution to sociological jurisprudence and his emphasis on
studying the actual work of law in society, his theory suffers from some
shortcomings. The Pound's theory of social engineering has been criticised on
various grounds.
It
has been argued that the classification of interests by the Pound is in the
nature of a catalog, in which additions and changes must be made continuously
that are neutral in relation to the value and priority relative to the neutral
value. Pound's theory of social engineering has been criticized for its use of
the term engineering, which equates society to a factory like a mechanism. Law
is a social process rather than the result of applied engineering. It is also
not right to equate society with a factory because the former is changing and
dynamic in nature while the latter is more or less stable. Again, Pound's
emphasis on engineering ignores the fact that law evolves and develops in
society according to social needs and wants that for which law can develop in
society according to social needs and for which either in law approval or
rejection may occur.
A
general criticism against Pound's theory is about his use of the word
'engineering' because it suggests a mechanistic application of the theory to
social needs, the term "engineering" is used by Pound for the
metaphor to indicate the problems that law has to face, the objectives to be
met and the method one must adopt for this purpose.
Spelling of Live in first line of the introduction is incorrect!!!
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