Understanding Jurisprudence: Definition of Law, Function of Law, and Classification of Law

Zinsheimer distinguishes law into normative law, ideal law, and law proper, which is explained as follows:

1. Normative Law, namely the law that appears as well as unwritten law in statutory regulations, but is obeyed by the community based on the belief and rules of life that it is only natural that it be obeyed;
2. Ideal Law is the law that is aspired to, which is rooted in pure human feelings, which can fulfill the sense of justice of all nations in the world, so that it is an objective law;
3. Proper Law is law as it occurs and appears every day, which often deviates from normative law because it is not taken by the instruments of government power, so that violations by the community are gradually considered commonplace.

Function of Law

Factors and circumstances of society greatly determine how law can function in that society. The function of law is to regulate and regulate social relations and resolve problems that arise. The function of law can be arranged as follows:

1. Providing guidelines or directions to community members;
2. Social supervision or control (social control);
3. Dispute settlement (dispute settlement);
4. Social engineering (social engineering)

Satjipto Rahardjo states that law can be used as a means of social engineering, which means that law is not only used to confirm patterns of habits and behavior found in society, but also as a means to direct towards desired goals, eliminate habits that are considered no longer suitable for creating new patterns of behavior. In its function as a social engineer, law must be able to shape society as desired, and always be under the control and supervision of change pioneers. A pioneer of change is a person or group of people who have gained the trust of the community as leaders of one or more social institutions.

Law has 4 (four) functions when associated with development, namely as a maintainer of order and security, as a means of development, as a means of enforcing justice, and as a means of public education. Joseph Raz divides the function of law into direct and indirect functions when viewing the function of law as a social function. The direct function is divided into two, namely the primary function, which includes preventing certain acts and encouraging certain acts, providing facilities for private plans, providing services and redistributing goods, and settling outside regular channels. The direct secondary functions are as follows:

1. Procedures for changing the law, which include constitution making bodies, parliaments, local authorities, administrative legislation, custom, judicial law making, regulations made by independent public bodies, and others;
2. Procedures for the implementation of the law

Soedjono Dirdjosisworo states that the function and role of law is order, regulation, and resolution of disputes, which are broadly divided into the following stages:

1. As a tool for order and regularity of society;
2. As a means to realize social justice both physically and mentally;
3. As a means of driving development;
4. As a critical function, namely the working power of law to carry out supervision, both to the supervisory apparatus, the implementing apparatus (officers) and the law enforcement apparatus itself.

Division of Law

According to C.S.T. Kansil, law can be divided into several groups as follows:

1. According to its source

• Statutory law, namely law contained in laws;
• Customary law (adat), is law that lies in customary regulations;
• Treaty law, namely law stipulated by countries in an inter-state agreement;
• Jurisprudence, is law that is formed due to a judge's decision

2. Based on its form

• Written law;
  • Codified written law;
  • Uncodified written law
• Unwritten law;

3. Based on its territorial validity

• National law, which is the law that applies within a country;
• International law, which is the law that governs legal relations in the international sphere;
• Foreign law, which is the law that applies in other countries;
• Canon law, which is a collection of norms established by the church for its members.

4. Based on its temporal validity

• ius constitutum, which is the law currently in force for a particular society in a particular region;
• ius constituendum, which is the law expected to be in force in the future;
• Natural law, which is the law that applies everywhere at all times and to all nations in the world;

5. Based on the method of enforcement

• Substantive law, which is the law containing regulations that govern interests and relationships in the form of orders or prohibitions;
• Procedural law, which is the law containing regulations that govern how to implement and enforce substantive law or regulations that govern how to file a case in court and how judges render decisions

6. Based on its nature

• Mandatory law, which is the law that must be enforced under any circumstances and has absolute coercion;
• Regulatory law, which is the law that can be set aside when the parties concerned have made their own regulations in an agreement.

7. Based on its form

• Objective law, which is the law in a country that applies generally and does not recognize specific individuals or groups;
• Subjective law, which is the law arising from objective law and applying to a specific person or more.

8. Based on its content

• Private law is the law that governs relations between individuals, focusing on individual interests;
• Public law is the law that governs relations between the state and its instrumentalities or relations between the state and individuals.

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