John Austin (legal philosopher)

For the 20th-century linguistic philosopher, see J. L. Austin.

John Austin
Born(1790-03-03)3 March 1790
Creeting Mill, Suffolk
Died1 December 1859(1859-12-01) (aged 69)
Weybridge, Surrey
Era19th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolLegal positivism
InstitutionsUCL Faculty of Laws
Main interests
Legal philosophy
Notable ideas
Criticism of natural law
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John Austin (3 March 1790 – 1 December 1859) was an English legal theorist who posthumously influenced British and American law with an analytical approach to jurisprudence and a theory of legal positivism.[1] Austin opposed traditional approaches of "natural law", arguing against any need for connections between law and morality. Human legal systems, he claimed, can and should be studied in an empirical, value-free way.

  1. ^ Markby, William (1911). "Austin, John" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 02 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 938–940.