John Austin

John Austin (3 March 1790 – 1 December 1859) was an English legal theorist, who posthumously influenced British and American law with an analytical approach to jurisprudence and a theory of legal positivism. Austin opposed traditional approaches of "natural law", arguing against any need for connections between law and morality. Human legal systems, he claimed, can and should be studied in an empirical, value-free way. Austin was born on 3 March 1790 at Creeting St Mary in today''''s district of Mid Suffolk, as the eldest son of a well-to-do miller.

After spending five years in the army during the Napoleonic Wars, Austin turned to law, and spent seven unhappy years practising at the Chancery bar. In 1819, he married Sarah Taylor and became neighbours and close friends with Jeremy Bentham, James and John Stuart Mill. Mainly through Bentham''''s influence, Austin was appointed Professor of Jurisprudence at the newly founded London University in 1826. However, Austin''''s lectures were not well-attended and he resigned his university post in 1834.

Thereafter, aside from two stints on government commissions, Austin lived largely on his wife Sarah Austin''''s earnings as a writer and translator. Plagued by ill health, depression and self-doubt, Austin wrote little after the publication of his major work, The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (1832). This work was largely ignored in Austin''''s lifetime, but became influential after his death, when his widow published a second edition in 1861. A second book, Lectures on Jurisprudence, was put together by her from Austin''''s notes and published in 1863.

John Austin died on 1 December 1859 in Weybridge.