Abstract:  By re-interpreting the content of “virtue” and “human nature”, Adam Smith denied Aristotle’s classical proposition that “man is by nature an animal of polis” and redefined it as “man is by nature an animal of society”. He attempted to establish the natural jurisprudence system with the Novum Organum, the emotionalist human nature theory and moral philosophy. By doing so, he provided natural jurisprudence with a secular foundation, and the state and legislators with theoretical directions. Society was the core and foundation of his theoretical system. Only having mastered the relation between “society” and its natural jurisprudence could we obtain a deep understanding of its political economy and the true essence of the state theory. The aim of this paper is to explain the significance of “society” to its natural jurisprudence, and in turn, the structure and characteristics of the jurisprudence.In Smith’s natural jurisprudence, the relationship between society and state was reflected by that between “laws of justice” and “laws of police”. State should meet the requirement of “natural society”, making “laws of police” for governing the historical society, and dealing with its corruption, injustice and conflictions. The discovery of Society leads to the birth of the State of Police. In the theoretical tradition erected by modern philosophers like Adam Smith, the art of government breaks up the borderline between “polis” and family, and then the borderline between the sovereign state and society. Whether in the ancient Greek political philosophy or in modern theories of state represented by Machiavelli and Hobbes, “polis” or state is out of and above society. They have aims and obey logics that are different from those of society and economy. But according to Smith’s art of government, society is the object of the state’s governmentality, and offers its rules. In this power model, the state is within society, just as the household head is within the family.

Key words: society, natural justice, natural jurisprudence, law of justice, law of police