In 1972, Baron Hampstead suggested that no such definition could be produced. McCoubrey and White said that the question “what is law?” has no simple answer. Glanville Williams said that the meaning of the word “law” depends on the context in which that word is used. He said that, for example, “early customary law” and “municipal law” were contexts where the word “law” had two different and irreconcilable meanings. Thurman Arnold said that it is obvious that it is impossible to define the word “law” and that it is also equally obvious that the struggle to define that word should not ever be abandoned.
- Decisions were not published in any systematic way, so any case law that developed was disguised and almost unrecognised.
- Negligence does not carry criminal responsibility unless a particular crime provides for its punishment.
- John Austin’s utilitarian answer was that law is “commands, backed by threat of