Introduction to Anglo-American Law 
By 
Hugh Evander Willis 1 2 
CHAPTER I 
LAW 
Law Defined. There is no more important and funda- 
mental legal concept than that of “law” itself. For this rea- 
son, before discussing any of the more specific legal concepts, 
we shall first discuss this general legal concept. What is the 
meaning of “law”? How should the term “law” be defined? 
There have been a great many definitions of “law”. Prob- 
ably the best known definition is that of Blackstone. Black- 
stone's definition once had great vogue, but it is now generally 
repudiated. Blackstone said that law, in its most general and 
comprehensive sense, “is that rule of action which is pre- 
scribed by some superior and which the inferior is bound to 
obey”. 3 Civil law he defined as “a rule of civil conduct pre- 
scribed by the supreme power in the state, commanding what 
is right and prohibiting what is wrong”. 4 Blackstone’s defini- 
tion includes two notions: (1) that of a “superior”, and (2) 
that of a “command”. Both of these notions are incorrect. 
Law is not something prescribed by a superior to an inferior. 
If it were, not only would it not include international law, 5 
1 Professor of law in Indiana University. 
2 Pound, “Interests of Personality”, 28 Hai'v. L. Rev. 343, 445 ; 3 Dunster House 
Papers, 3-4 ; History and System of the Common Law ; The Spirit of the Common Law ; 
Introduction to Philosophy of Law; Interpretations of Legal History; I Lib. Am. Lato 
and Prac. 1, 8 ; Hohfeld, “Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial 
Reasoning”, 23 Yale L. Jour. 16, 26 Yale L. Jour . 710 ; also 11 Mich. L. Rev. 537 ; 
Corbin, “Legal Analysis and Terminology”, 29 Yale L. Jour. 163 ; Kocourek, 15 III. L. 
Rev. 24, 347 ; 20 Col. L. Rev. 394 ; 68 Pa. L. Rev. 322 ; 19 Mich. L. Rev. 47 ; 30 Yale 
L. Jour. 215 ; Goble, 4 III. L. Q. 94 ; 5 III. L. Q. 36 ; Wilson, The State, 610-635 ; Amos, 
Science of Jurisprudence; Holland, Jurisprudence ; Gray, Nature and Sources of Law; 
Salmond, Jurisprudence ; Pollock, First Book of Jurisprudence. 
3 1 Blackstone Commentaries, 38. 
4 1 Blackstone Commentaries , 44. 
5 Clark, Practical Jurisprudence, 134, 172, 186, 187. 
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