THE

PHILOSOPHY
OF LAW

NATURAL LAW PHILOSOPHERS

PLATO (427 347 BCE)
Student of Socrates
Wrote as the voice of Socrates
Believed that human law should strive to reflect certain
universal and eternal truths.
Nature is inherently reasonable and good.
Law is the moral imperative and the ideal that humans
must attempt to achieve. The most basic law is to do good
and avoid evil.

Socrates

Plato

 The purpose of law is to serve as a moral guide on how to

live the good life.

A human being achieves a state of justice through reason.
The state achieves a state of justice through law.
Plato believed that there is a hierarchy of obedience. First
people follow the law out of fear, then out of habit and then
out of the realization that law is just.
Since law should reflect a moral quality, Plato argues that it
is just to disobey an unjust law that does not produce
harmony and justice. (Civil Disobedience)

Aristotle (384 322

BCE)
Student of Plato
Law is derived from
Nature and is
inherent in all things
animate and
inanimate.
Law and justice are
meant to produce
human happiness.
This happiness is
gained through being
virtuous and
controlling our inner
beast.
Unlike Plato,
Aristotle believed

Human beings are

endowed with the
ability to think and
reason. Therefore
humans can
recognize their own
nature and make laws
that are suitable to
that nature.
The perfect
standard of law is
revealed through the
exercise of human
reason guided by
observation. This is
called rationalism.
The laws of the
state must regulate

Cicero (106 43 BCE)

Roman politician, lawyer
and legal philosopher.
Law is rooted a divine
source; Jupiter.
Natural Law is universal
and unchanging. Nature
ensures the common
good.
Law is in the mind of
wise and intelligent
men and they are the
standard by which justice
and injustice are
measured (philosopher
kings).
If in the minds of wise
and intelligent men the

Civil disobedience should be

used to force the government
to make laws that conform to

St. Thomas
Aquinas (1224
1274)

Dominican Monk.
Influenced by Aristotle
and Christian teachings.
Natural Law and
Rationalism are consistent
with Christian truth.
Law must mirror a
natural world order made
known through reason and
the revelation of the
prophets. Law has a moral
purpose.
Law gains its legitimacy
through reason. The
validity of law is based on

Four kinds of Law:

Eternal Law Natural Law Divine Positive Law
Positive Law

Human

Eternal law comes from God and is unchanging.

Natural law is eternal law that can be known to humans.
Divine Positive law is the part of eternal law revealed
through the scriptures.
Human positive law is the laws made by the state.
The Order of Natural Law
First Principle:

Do good and avoid evil.

For example preserving life, caring for

children,
knowing the truth about God,
not harming others,
helping the poor
and the sick, shunning ignorance, etc.
Second Principle: How to act based on the first
principle.
For example the enforcement of the law,

Unlike Aristotle, Aquinas did not believe that the

state leads people to their greatest potential. The
state is subordinate to the Catholic church who is
in charge of moral matters on Earth. Therefore an
unjust law does not have any binding force. Such
laws are an act of violence against the people of
the state.

Aquinas
defines human
law as the
ordinance of
reason for the
common good,
proclaimed
publicly by a
ruler who has
care for the
community.

English Philosopher and

Political Theorist
All people have natural
rights given to them by
birth from God. The most
fundamental rights are life,
liberty and property.
Natural law states that no
person should deny these
rights to another therefore
the main goal of the state is
to preserve these rights.
In the state of nature,
peoples passions often get
the better of their reason
which leads to the
oppression of the weak.
People enter into civil

John Locke (1632

1704)

Locke recommends that if the ruler

violates the natural rights of the people, the
people are justified in rebelling and
replacing an unjust government with one
that will respect their rights.
The Taking of the
Bastille during The
French Revolution (1789)

R. M. Dworkin (1931 - )
Political and Legal Philosopher
Law must possess a moral
content.
Legal reasoning is interpretive
as we try to make political and
moral sense out of difficult
situations or cases.
Law has to have political
integrity. Law should be a union
of widely held, coherent
political decisions that show a
consistency of moral choices
and a shared vision of social

POSTIVE LAW
PHILOSOPHERS

Thomas Hobbes (1588

1679)
English Political
Philosopher
The state of nature is
a state of perpetual
war where the strong
prey on the weak. In
the state of nature life
is solitary, poor, nasty,
brutish and short.
In order to survive,
people must give up
their rights to the
state. The sole

All people must

obey the law at all
times. To not follow
the law would only
lead the world into
chaos.
The weakness of
natural law is that it
allows people to find
their own meaning of
the law. This makes
law ineffectual and
legitimizes tyrants.

Jeremy
Bentham

Jeremy Bentham (1748 1832) and John Austin (1790

1859)
Legal Philosophers
Utilitarianism the greatest good for the greatest
number of people.
The purpose of law is to maintain social order and the
social good. The function of law is more important than

Law requires:
1) The existence of an authoritative body
that is in
the habit of being obeyed.
2) Legal pronouncements given to
political
inferiors.
3) There is an imposition of the duty to
obey.
4) There is enforcement through
penalties.
Obedience to the law is demanded of all. (Rule
of Law)
The governed are superior to the governor
therefore abuses are kept in check by the fear
of active resistance.

H.L.A Hart (1907

1992)

Law is made up of rules of

general application that are
backed up by threats given
by people that are generally
obeyed.
Law can be defined by
Primary Rules which define
what an individual can or
cannot do and Secondary
Rules that set out how
primary rules will be made
valid and enforced.
Hart tries to prove that
there can be a precise set of
rules to define human
conduct. He does recognize
that law has an open texture
or there are limits to define