John Austin ’was the greatest exponent of this School ,who is the father of English Jurisprudence .He was born in 1790 .At a very age he entered the army in which he served for five year .In1826 he appointed to the Chair of jurisprudence in the University of London .His lectures delivered in London University were published under the volume entitled “The Province of Jurisprudence Determined”. In his lectures he discusses the nature of law and its proper bounds. He also discusses the sources of law and presents an analysis of the English legal system. 

Austin defined law as a rule laid down for the guidance of an intelligent being by an intelligent being having power over him Austin ‘s definition of law: -Austin is the father of English jurisprudence.he confined his only to the positive law. Austin defined law as “A rule laid down for the guidance of an intelligent being by an intelligent being having power over him. He also stated that “Law is the command of the Sovereign”. Austin believed that in the society, subjects are bound by the command issued by the sovereign from time to time. Classification of law

According to Austin law are two type – 1) Laws properly so called 2) Laws improperly so called

1) Laws properly so called: –

These laws are commands which are backed by sanctions of the state, are called law properly so called. Law properly so called is the positive law, which means law “as it is” rather than law “as it ought to be” with which he is not at all concerned. It is divided in two part. A) Laws of God B) Human laws

A) Laws of God: -these are the laws which are made by God for men.

B) Human laws: -These are the laws which are made by one human being for other human beings.

They may be further divided into two parts.   a) Positive Laws b) Other Laws

a) Positive Laws: – These are the laws set by political superiors as such, or by men not acting as political superiors but acting in pursuance of legal rights conferred by political superiors, only these laws are the proper subject matter of jurisprudence.

b) Other Laws: – Other laws is known as positive Morality, other laws which are not set by political superiors or by men in pursuance of legal rights. This class includes International Law.

2) Laws improperly so called

These laws are not commanding and thus, are not backed by sanctions. These laws are not obligatory. Austin’s Imperative Theory of Law or Analytical Positivism: This theory is known as Positive theory of law, Command theory, Imperative theory of law. Austin opined that only positive law is the proper subject matter of the study of jurisprudence. He defined” the jurisprudence is the philosophy of positive law.

According to Austin, the law is the command of the sovereign imposing a duty which is enforceable by sanction. The study and analysis of positive law are based upon the law which is strictly applied by political superiors to political inferiors.

he basic features of Command theory are:

• Command (by political superiors).

• Duty (imposing duty on political inferiors).

• Sanction.

• Sovereignty.

1) Sovereign 2) Command 3) Sanction 4) Duty 1) Sovereign: – Law is the command of a sovereign which obliges a person or persons to a course of conduct. Sovereign means ,such a person who is superior ,nobody can interfere. He is the supreme, irresistible, absolute and uncontrolled authority. There are some importance salient features of sovereignty :- a) Indivisibility b) Illimitability c) Essentiality d) Inalienability 2) Command :-A command means a wish or desire conceived by a rational being to another rational being who shall do or forbear .it is an evil to proceed from the former to be incurred by the latter in case of non -compliance and it is an expression or intimation of will by word or otherwise Command are two type a) General Command b) Particular or specific Command

a) General Command: – A general command is a law or rule where it is obliges generally to acts so forbearance of a class. All command is not law, it is only the general command.  

b) Particular Command: -It is particular when it obliges to a specific individual act.

3) Sanction: -Sanction is an evil which will be incurred if a command is disobeyed and is the means by which a command or duty is enforced. It is a wider sense of punishment. A reward for obeying the command can scarcely be called a sanction.

4) Duty: -when the party commanded and threatened is under an obligation to obey it. It is called duty. Thus, in Austin’s theory duty and command are co-relative and fear of sanction is the motive for obedience of such command i.e law .The chief characteristics of positive law are Sovereign Command ,Duty and Sanctions . 

Austin says, “every law is a command imposing a duty enforced by a sanction, however, all the commands are not law”. It is only the general command which is a law. Austin, though, accepts that there are three kinds of laws which are not commands but may be included within the purview of law by way of exception. They are:

1. Declaratory/Explanatory laws: They’re not commands because they are already in existence and are passed only to explain the law which is already enforced.

2. Law of Repeals: Austin doesn’t treat such laws as commands because they’re in for the revocation of a command.

3. Law of Imperfect obligations: They’re not treated as commands because there’s no sanction to them. Austin holds that a command to become law must be accompanied by duty and sanction for its enforcement.

Criticism:

Austin’s trilogy implicit in the concept of law has invoked criticism.

1. Customs are overlooked/ignored: Customs are always to regulate the conduct of human beings and therefore, customs should also be included in the study of jurisprudence but Austin ignored them.

2. Law conferring privileges: The law which is pure of permissive character and confers wholly privileges such as ‘The Wills Act’ which lays down the method of joining a testamentary document is not covered by Austin’s definition of law.

3. No place for judge-made law: Austin avoids the creative function of judiciary like applying of the precedents and in the interpretation of laws.

4. Austin theory treats international law as morality: Austin doesn’t treat international law as lacking sanction and this view of Austin neglects the increasing role of international law in achieving world peace.

5. Command Overemphasised: Austin’s theory of law overemphasizes on command and in modern progressive democracies, the law is nothing but an expression of the general will of the people, therefore the idea of command doesn’t apply in present systems.

6. The interrelation between law and morality is completely ignored: The greatest shortcoming of Austin’s theory is that it completely ignores the relationship between law and morality and law can never be completely divorced from morals and ethics.

7. Sanction alone is not the means to induce obedience: Auston’s theory that it’s the sanction who alone governs the people or induce the persons to obey the law is not correct. There are so many other factors like fear (of society), reason (of inner conscience), etc. are helpful to induce a person to obey the law.

Apart from these criticisms, Austin’s contribution of law has been greatly admired by other thinkers like Bentham, JS Mill, etc. The merits of Austin’s theory lie in its simplicity and it’s clear expression of separation law and morality. Thus, we can say that Austin made a great contribution to the law of Jurisprudence.