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Lectures on Jurisprudence, also called Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue and Arms (1763) is a collection of Adam Smith's lectures, comprising notes taken from his early lectures. It contains the formative ideas behind The Wealth of Nations.^[1]^[2]

Background

Published as part of the 1976 Glasgow Edition of the works and correspondence of Adam Smith. It consists of two sets of lecture notes that were apparently taken from Smith's lectures of the 1760s, along with an 'Early Draft' of The Wealth of Nations. The same material had also appeared as An Early Draft of Part of The Wealth of Nations and as Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue and Arms.

Summary

Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence, originally delivered at the University of Glasgow in 1762–1763, present his ‘theory of the rules by which civil government ought to be directed.’ The chief purpose of government, according to Smith, is to preserve justice; and ‘the object of justice is security from injury.’^[3] The state must protect the individual’s right to his person, property, reputation, and social relations. Smith elsewhere specifically defines the term jurisprudence as "the theory of general principles of law and government". It is also defined as the general guidelines about the essence of a nation's laws.^[4] In the lectures, Smith contends that every system of law aims for, and thus jurisprudence can be divided into, "the maintenance of justice, the provision of police in order to promote opulence, the raising of revenue, and the establishment of arms for the defence of the state".^[5]

Part I: Of Justice

Division I. Of Public Jurisprudence
Division II. Domestic Law
Division III. Private Law

Part II: Of Police

The pros and cons of money, prices, and financial exchanges fall under this section of the Lectures "since the regulation of prices and the creation of money by the state both came under the head of police."^[6]

Division I. Cleanliness and Security
Division II. Cheapness or Plenty^[7]

Part III: Of Revenue

Part IV: Of Arms

Part V: Of the Laws of Nations

Scholarly critique

According to William Caldwell, the lectures accomplish three goals: they detail Smith's philosophy and beliefs about economics, they explain his motivation to write about the historical origins of political societies, and they show the influence of mercantilism and Francis Hutcheson on Smith's thoughts on the political economy.^[6] In an article for Political Science Quarterly, Wilhelm Hasbach [de] opines that Smith believed that the political economy is the foundation for morality, law, government, wealth, revenue, and arms, a position that originated from the idea of natural law.^[4] He also notes that Smith's relationship with the physiocrats is important in the Lectures and that some critics state that Smith produced the same concepts as the physiocrats on economics.^[4] Hasbach also states that Smith expands on physiocratic ideas by advocating a freedom of industry. Smith expects that industry - and also commerce - be laisser-faire and relevant to all aspects of political economics.^[4] Another scholar, C. F. Bastable, notes that Smith recognizes the need for industry for the production of wealth. Industry creates capital which is much needed in an economically viable society.^[8]

Hasbach has also written that the Lectures offer a perspective of Smith's view on property that differs from that of John Locke. Smith believes that property does not lie within the individual but rather that it ought to be shared within society. "The individual and his labor are in no respect the ultimate source of the right of property in land: the origin of this right is in society."^[4] Also, according to Hasbach, Smith rejects a state of nature and the doctrine on an original contract, two ideas supported by Locke.^[4]

Notes

^ Smith, Adam (1976), Meek, Ronald L.; Raphael, David D.; Stein G. Peter (eds.), Lectures on Jurisprudence (1 ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press
^ See also Cannan, Edwin, ed. (1896), Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue and Arms delivered in the University of Glasgow by Adam Smith and reported by a Student in 1763 (First ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, retrieved 14 December 2012
^ "Lectures on Jurisprudence | Adam Smith Works". www.adamsmithworks.org. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Hasbach, W. (1897). "Adam Smith's Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue and Arms". Political Science Quarterly. 12 (4): 684–698. doi:10.2307/2139691. JSTOR 2139691.
^ Meek, R.. L.; Raphael, D. D.; Stein, P. G., eds. (1762). "Introduction". The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, Vol. 5: Lectures on Jurisprudence. Oxford University Press (published 1978). p. 11. ISBN 9780198281887.
^ ^a ^b Caldwell, William (March 1897). "Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue, and Arms, Delivered in the University of Glasgow. Edwin Cannan , Adam Smith". Journal of Political Economy. 5 (2): 250–258. doi:10.1086/250422. ISSN 0022-3808.
^ This part engendered the beginning of The Wealth of Nations
^ BASTABLE, C. F. (1898). "ADAM SMITH'S LECTURES ON "JURISPRUDENCE"". Hermathena. 10 (24): 200–211. JSTOR 23036559.