  We present a formulation of general nonlinear LC circuits within the
framework of Birkhoffian dynamical systems on manifolds. We develop a
systematic procedure which allows, under rather mild non-degeneracy conditions,
to write the governing equations for the mathematical description of the
dynamics of an LC circuit as a Birkhoffian differential system. In order to
illustrate the advantages of this approach compared to known Lagrangian or
Hamiltonian approaches we discuss a number of specific examples. In particular,
the Birkhoffian approach includes networks which contain closed loops formed by
capacitors, as well as inductor cutsets. We also extend our approach to the
case of networks which contain independent voltage sources as well as
independent current sources. Also, we derive a general balance law for an
associated "energy function".
