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John Austin
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Last Updated: • Article History
Category: History & Society
Born:
March 3, 1790, Creeting Mill, Suffolk, Eng.
Died:
December 1859, Weybridge, Surrey (aged 69)
Notable Works:
“The Province of Jurisprudence Determined”
Subjects Of Study:
jurisprudence
morality
positive law
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John Austin (born March 3, 1790, Creeting Mill, Suffolk, Eng.—died December 1859, Weybridge, Surrey) was an English jurist whose writings, especially The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (1832), advocated a definition of law as a species of command and sought to distinguish positive law from morality. He had little influence during his lifetime outside the circle of Utilitarian supporters of Jeremy Bentham. His authority came posthumously. Austin began to study law in 1812 after five years in the army and from 1818 to 1825 practiced unsuccessfully at the chancery bar. His powers of rigorous analysis and his uncompromising intellectual honesty deeply ...(100 of 838 words)

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