Jurisprudence Important Questions for TU Law Exams (LL.B. LAW301 & B.A.LL.B.) — Unit-wise List

Jurisprudence is the theory paper almost every TU law student meets first — and the one examiners love for long, structured answers. Below is a unit-wise list of the most important questions for the TU LL.B. Jurisprudence paper (LAW 301), collected and organized so you can revise the whole syllabus question by question.

Who is this for? TU LL.B. 1st Year (Jurisprudence, LAW 301) students — and B.A.LL.B. students of Jurisprudence-I (LAW 5101) and Jurisprudence-II (LAW 5201), whose units overlap heavily.

Unit-wise important questions

Unit 1: Introduction to Jurisprudence

1. State Ulpian’s definition and the etymology of jurisprudence.
2. Write short notes: philosophy of positive law (Austin); formal science of positive law (Holland); science of the first principles of civil law (Salmond).
3. Distinguish analytical from historical jurisprudence.
4. “Jurisprudence is the grammar of law.” Discuss the meaning, definitions and nature of jurisprudence.
5. Classify jurisprudence into its kinds with representative jurists, and locate each kind in this course’s syllabus.

Unit 2: Schools of Jurisprudence

1. State Cicero’s definition of true law and its claim.
2. Write short notes: Radbruch formula; Grundnorm; rule of recognition; living law; social engineering; relative autonomy; tû-tû.
3. What did Maine mean by “from Status to Contract”?
4. “Natural law has died a hundred deaths and risen a hundred times.” Trace the school’s phases and assess the 20th-century revival.
5. “Law is found, not made.” Explain the historical school with its contribution and critique, and test it against Nepal’s legal history.

Unit 3: Trends in Jurisprudence

1. What does the “indeterminacy thesis” claim?
2. Distinguish liberal from radical feminism in one sentence each.
3. What is the ethics of care, and who formulated its psychological version?
4. “Law is politics dressed in grammar.” Explain Critical Legal Studies and assess its critique and its critics.
5. Trace feminist jurisprudence through its schools, and read Nepal’s statute-and-litigation record (inheritance, marital rape, violence, citizenship) through its lens.

Unit 4: Definition and Sources of Law

1. Distinguish formal from material sources of law.
2. Define ratio decidendi and obiter dictum with an example.
3. List any four maxims of equity.
4. “The definition of law you accept determines the sources you recognise.” Discuss the meaning of law and its sources together.
5. “The minimum purpose of law is order; its maximum is justice.” Discuss the purposes and functions of law with illustrations from Nepal.

Unit 5: Concept of Justice

1. State Ulpian’s definition of justice.
2. What is the veil of ignorance, and what does it model?
3. State the two rules of natural justice.
4. “Justice is a constant will to render each his due.” Discuss the concept of justice from the ancients to Rawls, and locate it in Nepal’s constitutional preamble.
5. “Law without order is chaos; order without justice is tyranny.” Discuss the importance of justice for a legal system, with Nepali illustrations.

Unit 6: Rights and Duties

1. Define a legal right and state its five elements.
2. Distinguish rights in rem from rights in personam with examples.
3. What is an imperfect right? Illustrate with a time-barred debt.
4. Define a legal right. Explain the elements of a legal right with a Nepali example, and critically examine the will and interest theories.
5. “The kinds of legal rights are the working vocabulary of every branch of law.” Explain the classification of rights with illustrations from Nepali property, contract and constitutional law.

Unit 7: Person

1. Define “person” in law. Why is the equation person = human being false in both directions?
2. What is a corporation sole? Give two examples.
3. State the nasciturus maxim and its condition.
4. “Personality is a creature of law, not of nature.” Discuss the concept of legal personality, distinguishing natural from juridical persons with Nepali examples.
5. Critically examine the four theories of corporate personality. Which best explains the modern company?

Unit 8: Property

1. Correct the lay definition of property with reference to jus in re.
2. Decompose ownership into its Roman elements with one example each.
3. What is “dead capital”? Illustrate from Nepal’s titling experience.
4. “Property is not a thing but a bundle of legal relations.” Explain with reference to the decomposition of ownership and the carving effect of leases, mortgages and easements.
5. Explain the kinds of property with examples, and discuss the significance of the constitutional definition of property in Article 25 of the Constitution of Nepal (2015).

Unit 9: Obligation and Liability

1. Define obligation and state its four elements.
2. Distinguish being obliged from having an obligation (Hart’s gunman).
3. Place unjust enrichment on the Roman map of obligation’s sources.
4. “An obligation is a chain: performance severs it, breach converts it into liability.” Discuss the concept, sources and kinds of obligation, and its modes of extinction.
5. Define liability. Explain its kinds — civil and penal, remedial, vicarious, strict and absolute — with Nepali illustrations.

Unit 10: Possession

1. Define possession and state its two constituent elements.
2. Distinguish possession from custody with two illustrations.
3. What is quasi-possession? Give an example.
4. Define possession. Explain corpus possessionis and animus possidendi, and distinguish possession from custody with examples.
5. Compare Savigny’s subjective theory with Ihering’s objective theory of possession. Which better explains the possessory protection scheme of the Civil Code 2074?

Unit 11: Ownership

1. Define ownership per Austin and Salmond, and state the Roman triad.
2. State the five characteristics of full ownership.
3. What is the unity of possession in co-ownership?
4. Define ownership and explain its characteristics, including residuary character and elasticity, with illustrations of carved rights falling back into ownership.
5. Explain the classification of ownership — sole and co-ownership, corporeal and incorporeal, trust and beneficial, absolute and limited, vested and contingent — with Nepali illustrations (lalpurja, guthi, spousal joint ownership).

How to answer Jurisprudence questions well

• Define first. Almost every answer starts with a definition (and its author — Ulpian, Austin, Salmond, Kelsen), then explanation, then criticism.
• Name the school. Examiners reward precise labels: analytical positivism, historical school, natural law, realism — say which thinker belongs where.
• Use Nepali examples where the question allows (constitution, statutes, court practice) — it lifts a bookish answer to an applied one.
• Structure long answers: introduction → definitions → main body with headings → criticism/conclusion.

Free resources before you buy anything

Start with the free Unit 1: Jurisprudence Unit 1 — Introduction (free). Unit 1 of every subject is free on this site. When you are ready for the complete set — every unit, prescribed cases, exam focus boxes and model answers — see the complete notes packages (Rs 300 per semester/year, instant eSewa payment).