The centenary of Maine’s death prompts the questions: why is he remembered and what is his significance for us today? In part the answer is simple. He wrote well, and his books such as Ancient Law are a pleasure to read. It is frankly a relief to turn to his works after reading the remarkable but laboured chapters of that other nineteenth century jurist, John Austin (1 790-1859).
But going beyond his style and assessing his intellectual merits and the modern uses of his ideas is a more complicated matter. If his jurisprudential ideas are compared with those of, say, Bentham and Austin it is clear that there is an initial contrast in the way their respective theories are categorised. When the latter two thinkers are considered it is useful to refer to Benthamite and Austinian forms of jurisprudence.