Natural Law Slide 3

NATURAL LAW
AAU, COLGS, SCHOOL OF LAW
2024/2017
BINNYAM A.
BASIC TENETS OF NATURAL LAW
• Natural Law Vs Law of nature/State of nature
• Some laws are basic and fundamental to human nature and
are discoverable by human reason without reference to
specific legislative enactment or judicial decision.
• Laws that are in accord with the ultimate purpose of man
constitute natural law.
• de lege feranda (the law as it ought to be)
• Universal, Unchanging, Everlasting
• Good and Evil distinction + Good is natural law
• Natural order known by man
• Moral Validity
MANIFESTATIONS/TYPOLOGIES OF NATURAL LAW
THEOLOGICAL/
GOD GIVEN SECULAR/HUMAN LOGO (HEAVENLY LAWS)+ NOMO
REASON AND WILL (MAN-MADE LAWS )=

PERFECTION/COSMIC HARMONY
1. GREEKS
• SOCRATES(469-399 BC)- Apology/Crito/The
laws of the polis were a reflection of natural law
• PLATO-(429-348BC)- Doctrine of
forms/Philosopher kings/Natural law sanctions
each person to do only that which nature assigns
to him.
• ARISTOTLE (384-320 BC)- ‘justice as treating
equals equally and unequal’s unequally.’ He
identified types of justice such as natural justice,
conventional justice, commutative justice, corrective
justice and distributive justice.’/natural and legal
justice distinction
2.ROMANS
THE STOICS Three ideas

(Romans)-Natural derived from stoics
law as a reason. philosophy
Deriving universal
Universal principle of law
law from various
cultures
International law
• CICERO- ON DUTIES
• law is the highest reason implanted in
nature which commands what ought to be
done and not
• True law is right reason in agreement with
nature; it is of universal application,
unchanging and everlasting; it summons to
duty by its commands, and averts from
wrongdoing by its prohibitions.
• WE ARE THE SLAVES OF THE LAW SO
THAT WE MAY BE FREE.
PRE CHRISTIANITY
• The Jewish state and Mosaic laws
• The stipulations of the Mosaic Covenant and the
entire Pentateuch (the books of Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). Of course, the
Mosaic covenant is contained within the Pentateuch,
specifically, from Exodus 20 through Deuteronomy
33.
• Torah”: This is the Hebrew word translated “law,” but
it actually means “instruction.”
• The Decalogue (Ten Commandments) is foundational
to the rest of the Law
• Laws of worship/ Laws of physical purity/ laws
dealing with business dealing & purity/ laws of
morality/
CHRISTIANITY
• Teachings of Christ and later time
developments by church scholars ( St
Augustine (354 – 430 AD) and St.
Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274 AD)
• St.Augustin’s City of God and City of
man
• lex temporalis, lex naturalis (natural
law), and lex aeterna(eternal law)
• Aquinas has added lex divina (divine
law) and lex humana (human law) to the
listing by avoiding lex temporalis
•St.Augustine ( Aurelius Augustinus)
• Confessions/ The City of God
•Why bad reign in the world:
Natural Evil and Moral Evil.
•The Free Will defense
• St.Thomas Aquinas
• First cause Argument/ uncaused
cause
FEATURES OF JUST LAW AS ST.AQUINAS
A. It
must harmonize with the dictates of natural law, or
‘ordered to the common good
B. The law giver has not exceeded his authority; and
C. The law’s burdens are imposed on citizens fairly

ISLAMIC VIEW OF LAW/ FIQH
• Islamic jurisprudence may be defined as a process by
means of which jurists derive sets guidelines, rules and
regulations (the Shari’ah) from the principles of the Qur’an
and the Sunnah.
• Besides the Qur’an and the Sunnah, the sources of law in
Islam are qiyas (analogy), ijma’ (consensus) and ijtihad
(disciplined, academic research).
• While Sharīʿah is considered to be divine and
immutable, fiqh, the human effort to know the Sharīʿah, is
imperfect and changeable.
SOCIAL CONTRACT ( HOBBES & LOCKE)
Humans are all It is the notion of equality that

creates the sense of insecurity to
Thomas Hobbes basically selfish, only humans. Naturally we are not
the rule of law and equal in intellect, physique,
(1588-1679) • the threat of sanction wealth; hence we shall surrender
the notion of equality via a social
keeps us in check. contract for the best of all.
State of nature- Alienation of

life would be freedom- not Leviathan (1651)
safety is far more
solitary, poor, wisdom but important than
nasty , brutish, and authority makes freedom
short. the law
The blank The new dimension of
peaceful nature of
John Locke
(1632-1704) slate child man and the
emphasis on right to
of Locke property.
Not alienation The liberty of man in society is to be
Limited of freedom
under no other legislative power but
that established by consent in the
commonwealth, nor under the
sovereignty rather dominion of any will, or restraint of
any law, but what the legislative shall
delegation enact, according to the trust put in it
NATURAL LAW :FROM DECLINE TO REVIVAL
Massive
human
delinquenci
es by the
Nazis
during the
Second
World War
PROCEDURAL NATURAL LAW
• Lon L. Fuller-The Two Moralities

• Morality of Aspiration(MoA) Vs Morality
of Duty(MoD)
• The MOA is a goal of excellence, the
good life, the fullest realization of
human powers-
• The MOD is a minimum standard as the
basic requirements of social living
• Aesthetics Vs Law
It is not the business of law • A system of
to prescribe for excellence government that lacks
but rather to ensure the
minimum baseline from which ‘inner morality of law’
development towards cannot constitute a legal
excellence might moved. system
MORALITY Morality of Law(1963) The • King Rex’s law( Eight ways

morality that makes law
OF LAW possible. to fail to make law)
• Corresponding to the eight

defects illustrated by Rex’s • The Inner morality of Law
mistakes Fuller lists eight
qualities of excellence
INNER CHARACTER( MORALITY) OF LAW
The Generality of Promulgation Prospective, not The Clarity of

Law retroactive laws
Congruence
Consistent Laws Requiring Constancy of the between official
the impossible law through time action and
declared rules
SUBSTANTIVE NATURAL LAW: JOHN FINNS
Human desires to pursue "basic goods" in life
Inborn( innate ) knowledge of self evident goods
Theory of how to live well
Natural Law and Natural Rights
All rational agents set out to preserve or obtain

things they perceive to be good for themselves
• Seven "basic goods" in life,
goods that are fundamental,
underived from other goods
and irreducible to other
things that are the motivation
and goal of action
• Primary, indemonstrable and
self-evident goods
Life, meaning
not merely • Knowledge, • Aesthetic
existence but not only as a experience, in
also the means to an some ways
capacity for end but as a • Play, in relate to play
development good in its own essence the but not
of potential. right which capacity for necessarily so,
Within the improves life recreational this is broadly
category of quality. experience a capacity to
life and its and enjoyment. experience
preservation and relate to
Finnis includes some
procreation. perception of
beauty
Sociability or • Practical
friendship, • Religion, this is
occurring at
reasonablene not limited to,
various levels but ss, essentially although it clearly
commonly the capacity includes, religion in
accepted as a to shape one’s the formal sense
‘good’ aspect of of faith and
social life. One conduct and practice centered
might add that this attitude upon some sense
‘good’ would seem according to of the divine. The
to be an essential reference here is
aspect of human
some to a sense of the
conducts as social ‘intelligent responsibility of
creatures, as put and human beings to
by Aristotle. reasonable’ some greater
order than that of
thought their own
process. individuality

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NATURAL LAW

AAU, COLGS, SCHOOL OF LAW

REASON AND WILL (MAN-MADE LAWS )=

THE STOICS Three ideas

B. The law giver has not exceeded his authority; and

C. The law’s burdens are imposed on citizens fairly

Humans are all It is the notion of equality that

State of nature- Alienation of

Not alienation The liberty of man in society is to be

• Lon L. Fuller-The Two Moralities

MORALITY Morality of Law(1963) The • King Rex’s law( Eight ways

• Corresponding to the eight

The Generality of Promulgation Prospective, not The Clarity of

Inborn( innate ) knowledge of self evident goods

Theory of how to live well

Natural Law and Natural Rights

All rational agents set out to preserve or obtain

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