Natural Law
DEFINITION OF NATURAL LAW
Natural law is a law or body of laws that derives from nature and is believed to be binding upon human actions apart from or in conjunction with laws established by human authority.
John M. Finnis defines natural law as “a set of principles of practical reasonableness in ordering human life and human community”. Finnis states that natural law consists of two sets of principles. These consist of certain basic values and requirement of practical reasonableness.
It is the nature of every human being to know from his conscience what is right, correct proper and therefore lawful. Natural law is linked with morality, conscience and thinking power that any person knows what is proper knows what is proper and what is wrong. Law and religion for the Naturalist remained undifferentiated.
To the natural law thinkers, natural law is the law which is derived from nature. Cicero, the Roman orator defines natural law as “right reason in agreement with nature”. Nature here means how man ought to behave. If Parliament were to enact legislation “all people must walk on their heads”, it is contrary to natural law; such laws are wrong and will not be obeyed or observed or accepted.
Natural law asserts that there exists in nature, in particular human nature, a rational order. This order furnishes value-statements independently of human will which are usually said to be universal an eternal. The value-statements are expressed in the form of moral imperatives providing an objective stance from which the legal and political structures can be critically evaluated.
While the Positive Law is concerned with what law ‘is’, the Natural law is more concerns with what law ‘ought to be’. However, several jurists such as John Stuart Mill and David Hume take the view that it is a great naturalistic fallacy to deduce an ‘ought’ from an ‘is’. Mill argues that the duty of man is not to follow nature, but to amend it.
DEFINITION OF POSITIVIST
Positivism refers
Natural law is a law or body of laws that derives from nature and is believed to be binding upon human actions apart from or in conjunction with laws established by human authority.
John M. Finnis defines natural law as “a set of principles of practical reasonableness in ordering human life and human community”. Finnis states that natural law consists of two sets of principles. These consist of certain basic values and requirement of practical reasonableness.
It is the nature of every human being to know from his conscience what is right, correct proper and therefore lawful. Natural law is linked with morality, conscience and thinking power that any person knows what is proper knows what is proper and what is wrong. Law and religion for the Naturalist remained undifferentiated.
To the natural law thinkers, natural law is the law which is derived from nature. Cicero, the Roman orator defines natural law as “right reason in agreement with nature”. Nature here means how man ought to behave. If Parliament were to enact legislation “all people must walk on their heads”, it is contrary to natural law; such laws are wrong and will not be obeyed or observed or accepted.
Natural law asserts that there exists in nature, in particular human nature, a rational order. This order furnishes value-statements independently of human will which are usually said to be universal an eternal. The value-statements are expressed in the form of moral imperatives providing an objective stance from which the legal and political structures can be critically evaluated.
While the Positive Law is concerned with what law ‘is’, the Natural law is more concerns with what law ‘ought to be’. However, several jurists such as John Stuart Mill and David Hume take the view that it is a great naturalistic fallacy to deduce an ‘ought’ from an ‘is’. Mill argues that the duty of man is not to follow nature, but to amend it.
DEFINITION OF POSITIVIST
Positivism refers
References: * Haswira Nor Mohamad Hashim, Anida Mahmood, 2009, Law Morality Justice Freedom And Equility. * Unknown. Wikipedia the free encyclopaedia, Apartheid, Retrieved from http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid * Unknown. Positive Law, Retrieved from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/positive-law.html * Unknown. Wikipedia the free encyclopaedia, Pass Laws, Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pass_laws * Unknown. Positive Law, Retrieved from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Positive+Law * Dave Johannes, 2010 June 12, Natural Law VS Positive Law, Retrieved from http://davegj13.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/natural-law-vs-positive-law/ * Unknown. Wikipedia the free encyclopaedia, Apartheid, Retrieved from http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid * W Rumble. Austin, John (1832/1995), The Province of Jurisprudence Determined, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) (first published, 1832). http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/austin-john/#AusVie