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Bentham brought the central tenet of sociology of law sharply into focus by his insistence that the object of governments and of laws ought to be the greatest happiness of the community or the happiness of society. Whatever be the perplexities surrounding the notion of societal happiness, Bentham's steady emphasis on this principle reminds us of the relatedness of law and society now almost a platitudinous commonplace of juristic thought, but in the milieu of Bentham, certainly a path-breaking insight. The Theory is a long elaboration on the simple truth that law is both an instrument of social stability and an agent of social change, that law, even as it affects social orderings, is in turn deeply affected by them.
