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Social Engineering Theory, Jurel Postulates of Roscoe Pound

Introduction:- Roscoe pound was born in Lincoln Nebraska in the year 1870. He was an auxiliary judge of the supreme court of Nebraska. In 1903 he became the dean of Law School at the University of Nebraska and then he was dean and professor of  jurisprudence at Harvard University from 1916 to 1936.
    Roscoe pound is regarded as one of the most important American sociological jurist of 20th century. According to Pound law is social engineering and the body of knowledge and experience it is more than a body of rules. It has rules and principles and conceptions and standard for conduct and for decision like a engineer formula, they represent not only experienced scientific formulations but also inventing skills, conceiving new devices and formulating their requirements by means of developed techniques.
Roscoe pound concentrate on functional aspect:- He is considered as the American leader in the field of sociological jurisprudence. He concentrates more on the functional aspect of law and for this reason some writers call his approach as functional School. According to him(Pound) law is a conduct so as to make good of existence and the means of satisfying claims with least friction and waste. For him, the end of law should be to satisfy in "maximum of wants with a minimum of friction".
The task of law is social engineering:- Pound said that the task of law is social engineering. According to him purpose of understanding the law of today must satisfy as much as the wants of human by least friction or by sacrifices. He had contended that to think of law as a social institution to satisfying the social wants. The claims and demands involved in the existence of civilized society by giving effect of least sacrifices i.e., our wants should be satisfied by minimum conflict. So to secure the social interest friction or wastage should be removed for the enjoyment of goods i.e., for getting more wants by avoiding any friction, and it is possible only by means of social engineering.
    According to Roscoe Pound the jurist must work with a plan i.e., by social engineering. They have to solve the conflicts arising in the society. Pound said that there must be a balance between the competitive interest in the society and he entrusted the jurist with the method of social engineering, this balance can be maintained in the society.
    Pound think it to be studied by jurist to classify the interest existed in a society and which is to be protected by law. He classified the interest into three categories:-
1.Private interest,
2.Public Interest, and
3.Social interest.
     Roscoe pound examines interest in different perspectives. He divided this interest into three categories:-
1. Individual interest,
2. Public interest, and
3. Social interest
1. Individual interest:- Individual interest are claims or demands or desires involved in and look at from the stand-point of individual life.
2. Public interest:-
Public Interest are those claims or demand or desires involved in and look at from the stand-point of political life.
3. Social interest:-
According to the Roscoe Pound social interest are claims or demands or desires in terms of social life and generalized as claims of the social group. Roscoe Pound further developed their classification of interest in a civilized society they are:-
Individual intrest:- under individual interest pound includes_
a. Personality:- Interest of personality consists of interest in the physical person, the freedom of will, honour and reputation, privacy and sensibilities and beliefs and opinion.
b. Domestic relationship:- Relationship between husband and wife, parents and children etc.
c. Interest of substance:- This includes interest of property, succession, and testamentary tree disposition, freedom of Industry and contract, businesses, freedom of association etc.
Public intrest:- According to Roscoe Pound Public Interest are_
a. Interest of state as a juristic person.
b. Interest of state as a guardian of social interest, namely supritendence, administration of trusts and charitable endowments, conservation and protection of national environment etc.
Social intrest:- social interest includes
a. social interest is General security
b. social interest in general morals
c. social interest in the security of a social institution  d. social interest in conservation of social resources
e. social interest in general progress, it includes economic progress, political progress, and natural progress
f. social interest in individual life.
Criticism:- The classification made by Roscoe Pound on interest is not foolproof. One may find some overlapping interest in the classification by Roscoe pound.
Professor Stone rejected this classification of Roscoe Pound on the ground that they are only a particular form of social interest.
   Likewise Paton observed that logically there was no extra division can be drawn at all between social interest and Public Interest.
   However Roscoe Pound discussed the problems of interest in terms of balancing individual and social interest. Therefore, law is to devise ways and means and strike a balance between different claims and expectation existed in a individual and a social life.
   However this interests have no fixed values and immutable (not changeable) nature. Pound's theory of interest does not necessarily imply that whole service and function of law is to fullfil the need of the Society in order to maintain itself. Professor Pound himself has  observed that the individual needs the law, in order to keep his aggressive and social side in balance.
Jurel Postulates of Roscoe Pound:-
1) In civilized society men must be able to assume that others will not commit any intentional aggression upon them.
2. In  civilized society men must be able to assume that they may control for beneficial purposes what they have discovered and appropriated to their own use, what they have created for own labour, and, what they have acquired under the existing social and economic order.
3. In civilized society men must be able to assume that those with whom they deal with in general intercourse of society will act in good faith, and hence-
     a. Will may good reasonable expectation with their promises or other conduct reasonably created.
     b. Will carry out their undertakings according to the expectation which the moral sentiments of the community attaches thereto.
     c. Will restore specifically or by equivalent, what comes to them by mistake or unanticipated situation, whereby the receipt what they could not reasonably expected to receive under the actual circumstances.
4. In civilized society men must be able to assume that those who are engaged in some course of conduct, will act with due care, not to cast an unreasonable risk of injury upon others.
5. In civilized society men must be assume that others who maintains things or employee agencies, harmless in the sphere of their use but harmful in their normal actions elsewhere, and having a natural tendency to cross the boundaries of their proper use will restraint them and keep them within their proper bounds.
     Pound confessed that these jural postulates are not absolute but they have a relative value. They are a sort of ideal standards which law should pursue in society. They are of a changing nature and new postulates me emerge if the changes in the society so warrant. Thus the jurel postulates propounded by Roscoe Pound provides guidelines for righteous and civilized life and they also seek to strike a synthesis between reality and idealism as also power and social accountability of men in the community.
Conclusion:- Roscoe Pound based his theory of Social engineering on the assumption that protection of interest is the main subject-matter of law and it is the duty of the jurist to make 'evaluation of these interests" for the satisfaction of human wants in order to strike a balance between stability and social changes. Thus adopting a functional approach to law, Pound stressed upon the need for study of law in relation to and as a part of the whole process of social control.
    The practical importance of Pound's concept of law is that it inspires legislatures, judges and jurist to interpret law according to the needs and interest of the community through his "law in action", Pounds suggests that the legal fraternity should  take of changes taking place in the society while interpreting and making laws because law has to be considered as an instrument of social change.
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