Unit 1 Law Natural/Positive law theorists/Theories

Natural Law

The theory that human laws are derived from eternal and unchangeable principles that regulate the natural world

Socrates

1. Used verbal discussions

2. Philosophical Q&A (dialectic method)

3. Charged with corrupting youth

4. Law must guide people to do what is right and avoid what is wrong

5. Refused to violate the law

Plato

1. Followed socrates

2. Wrote “the republic” 

3. Humans act in conformity, fear of punishment, and commitment

4. Analyzed justice through harmony

5. Human laws must be based on knowledge of eternal laws that rule the universe

6. Moral law is a guide to society

Aristotle

1. Student of plato

2. Observed nature(rationalism)

3. Founded his own school (the lyceum)

4. Categorized human behaviour (political animals)

5. Law has a moral purpose to help citizens use reason/reach their potential

6. What makes you good based on life experiences

St. Thomas Aquinas

1. Integrated faith and logic 

2. taught at the university of paris

3. Religious figure

4. Linked natural law to divine law

5. Law is an ordinance of reason for the common good

6. Unjust laws need not be obeyed

   1. Eternal law

   2. Natural law

   3. Divine positive law

   4. Human positive law

7. The church is the real government

Positive Law

The theory that law is a body of rules formulated by the state

John Locke

• Proposed civil rights through reason

• Wrote regarding social contracts

• Challenged absolute power

• The state’s law exists to preserve natural rights

• If the government violates these, people are justified in rebelling

Thomas Hobbes

1. Wrote analytical political treaties

2. Used logic to prove the need for a sovereign 

3. Modeled state dynamics on human nature

4. Atheist

5. Wrote the leviathan

6. People surrender rights for self-preservation

7. Law is the will of the ruler to maintain order

Jeremy Bentham

1. Created a system of utilitarianism

2. used the “greatest happiness” metric

3. Evaluated laws by social utility

4. A law is good if it provides “the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people”

5. Law = social control

John Austin

1. Separated law from morality

2. Defined law as a command from a sovereign

3. Focused on objective rules

4. Father was a follower of Bentham

5. Law is an objective set of rules “set” by the governing body that must be obeyed to ensure social order

6. Social contract