John Austin

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...