"Law is a theory of social engineering, which means balance between the competing interests in society." Discuss Roscoe Pound's classification of interests.

Roscoe Pound drew a similarity between the task of a lawyer and an engineer and gave his theory of social engineering. The goal of this theory was to build such a structure of society where the satisfaction of wants of maximum was achieved with the minimum of friction and waste. Such a society according to Roscoe Pound would be an 'efficient' society. Realisation of such a social structure would require balancing of competing interests. Roscoe Pound's classification of interests are as follows: Individual interest: These are claims or demands determined from the standpoint of individual's life and concern. They are- Interest of personality: This includes physical integrity, freedom of will, honour and reputation, privacy and freedom of conscience. Interest in domestic relations: This includes relationships of parents, children, husbands and wives. Interest of substance: This includes interests of property, freedom of association, freedom of industry and contract, continuity of employment, inheritance and testamentary succession. Public interest: These interests are asserted by individuals from the standpoint of political life. They are: Interests of the state as a juristic person: It includes integrity, freedom of action and honour of the state's personality, claims of the politically organized society as a corporation to property acquired and held for corporate purposes. Interests of the state as guardian of social interest. Social interests: These are claims or demands thought of in terms of social life and generalized as claims of the social group. It is from the point of view of protecting the general interest of all members of the society. Social interests include- Social interest in the general security: This includes general safety, peace and order, general health, security of acquisition and transaction. Social interest in the security of social institutions such as domestic, religious, political and economic institutions. Social interest in general morals like laws dealing with prostitution, gambling, bigamy, drunkenness. Social interest in the conservation of social resources like the natural and human resource. This social interest clashes to some extent with the individual interest in dealing with one's own property as on pleases. Social interest in general progress. It has three aspects-economic, political and cultural. Social interest in individual life. It involves self-assertion, opportunity and conditions of life. Society is interested in individual life because individuals are its building blocks. Having given various interest recognized by law, Roscoe Pound applied himself to figure out to balance competing interests. He said that interests should be weighed on the same plane. According to him one cannot balance an individual interest against a social interest, since that very way of stating them may reflect a decision already made. Thus, all the interests should be transferred to the same place, most preferably to the social plane, which is the most general, for any meaningful comparison.