The objective of this study is to present a systematic, structural outline of that sector of jurisprudence known as the science of law. The purpose is to offer an analytical tool for understanding law and its historical development in any society. The approach integrates large parts of sociological jurisprudence and analytical jurisprudence. For the most part they complement one another. While analytical jurisprudence is concerned with the meaning of legal concepts and their degree of logical consistency, sociological jurisprudence is concerned with assembling facts about the contents, origins and impacts of legal norms and using social science methods to estimate cause and effect. Where they conflict, sociological jurisprudence is given precedence over analytical. For example, law is treated as an open, growing social order, not a closed one. The view here is that a social theory of law can have the rigor of theory in the social sciences. It is concerned in part with generalizing about the recorded decisions of those persons in societies who have been delegated authority to make binding, enforceable decisions to settle disputes. To the extent that these generalizations can be tested and shown to have predictive value, they meet the criterion of scientific method.