natural law
Natural law theory holds that law must conform to higher principles of right and justice discoverable by human reason or derived from nature or God. Its history runs from the Greek Stoics and Cicero, through Aquinas, to Grotius and the social contract theorists, and to modern writers such as Lon Fuller and John Finnis.
Its central claim, that an unjust law is not truly law, is opposed by legal positivism, which separates law as it is from law as it ought to be. Natural law ideas inform human rights, the doctrine of due process, and Indian decisions reading fairness into Article 21.
Example
The Nuremberg tribunal's rejection of the defence of obedience to Nazi law is often cited in support of natural law theory.
See also
legal positivism · justice · dharma · jus gentium
Read more in the study notes
- Intergenerational equity and the public trust doctrine (Environmental Law)
- Origin and development of human rights (Human Rights Law and Practice)
- Theories of human rights (Human Rights Law and Practice)
- Patents: meaning, patentability and non-patentable inventions (Intellectual Property Rights I)
- Bentham's principle of utility and the principles adverse to it (Interpretation of Statutes and Principles of Legislation)
- Invention and Patent: Meaning and Distinction (IPR I)