This book provides a detailed and careful examination of thekey issues in the study of jurisprudence, the idea of law itself. It introduces students to the variousapproaches to the subject and shows that the different schools are not mutuallycontradictory, but rather that they complement each other. Beginning with thenature of jurisprudence, and the evolution of law, the book covers the purposeof law, its sources, the relationship between law and the state, or public law,and the major concepts in private law. References to scholarly works are listedat the end of each chapter.