User:NL

My username stands for "natural law"

From Wikipedia:

"Natural law or the law of nature (Latin: lex naturalis) has been described as a law whose content is set by nature and that therefore has validity everywhere. As classically used, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. The phrase natural law is opposed to the positive law (which is man-made) of a given political community, society, or nation-state, and thus can function as a standard by which to criticize that law."

During the 19th century natural law theory lost influence as utilitarianism and Benthamism, positivism, materialism, and the historical school of jurisprudence became dominant. In the 20th century, however, natural law theory has received new attention, partly in reaction to the rise of totalitarianism and an increased interest in human rights throughout the world.

The problem as it stands
Is there natural justice?

Usually we speak of a just person as a person who obeys the laws. But justice consists in obeying the laws only if the laws themselves are just. Does the word "just" mean the same thing when we say that the man is just and when we say that the law is just?

This is one of the most difficult problems of all. For example, in all the countries in which we live there are traffic laws. We are asked to stop at certain corners, drive at certain speeds etc. There is nothing just or unjust about any one of these things until the law is made. But once in the community in which we live, it is conventionally decided, simply decided by the legislator that these are the rules of driving in the community, then the just person is the one who obeys these laws simply because they are the statutes or ordinances of the community in which he lives. For there is nothing right or wrong about left hand driving as opposed to right hand driving.

Yet even if there were no law made concerning stealing or murder, to kill a man or to take what belonged to him and not to you, would be naturally unjust. And so a law that prohibits murder is a law the justice of which is not conventional but natural. Justice is based upon the natural rightness or the natural wrongness of such things as stealing and murder.

Suppose for a moment that there were no natural justice. In that case you could not speak of laws as just or unjust. And all you could say would be that men are just or unjust according as they do or do not obey laws. The law itself, the existing law of the community would be the only measure of justice, in which case what was just in one community might be unjust in another.

Is there a natural justice which requires us to do what is right even when not commanded by the laws of the state, and which is the measure of justice of the state itself in its laws and government?

Natural law moral theory is that standards of morality are derived from, or entailed by, the nature of human beings.