John Austin is said to have set up this methodology which is sometimes referred to as Austinian School. This school believes in law as a direction from the supreme power (Sovereign). According to this School, Law is the Command of the Sovereign and owes its existence to the state and is posterior to it. The exponent of this school regards Legislation as the most important source of law. According to them, Custom has no place in law.

Austin was the one who propounded the theory of positive law but Bentham was the one who laid down its establishment.one of mainly five Schools of Jurisprudence.

Jeremy Bentham

Bentham appears to be the founder of this approach. He was a firm supporter of Lassez’s fair principle of economy. He wrote a book, “Limits of Jurisprudence defined” which was published in 1945. He was against Judge made law; according to him, the law should be made only by the legislature. He was an individualist. He said that the function of law is to emancipate the individual from the bondage and restraint upon his freedom. The purpose of the law is to bring pleasure and avoid pain. His legal philosophy is called “Utilitarian individualism”.

John Austin

Austin is known as the father of the English Jurisprudence and Analytical School. He wrote a book, “Province of Jurisprudence Determined”. He defined law as “a rule laid down for the guidance of an intelligent being by an intelligent being having power over him”.  Law is the command of a sovereign backed by Sanction.

Salient features of the analytical school of jurisprudence

1)founder of the analytical school is john Austin who was a professor of jurisprudence at the University of London.

2).the jurists of the analytical school consider that the most important aspect of the law is its relation to the state.

3).the proponents of this school are concerned neither with the past nor with the future of the law, but with the law as it exists. as it is (present form).for this reason, this school is termed as a positive school.

4).the law is treated as an imperative or command emanating from the state. for this reason, this school is known as the imperative school.

5)the positive school takes for granted the developed legal system proceeds to logically analyze its basic concepts and classify them and bring out their relations to one another. this concentration of the systematic analysis of the legal concepts has given the name analytical school of jurisprudence. 

6).the purpose of analytical jurisprudence is to analyze without reference either to historical origin or development, but its main thing starts from actual facts of law as it sees them today.

7). Analytical jurisprudence is the study of logical relations within the law

8)The chief proponents of the analytical school are Jeremy Bentham, John Austin, prof, H.L.A Hart, Hans Kelsen & others.