Natural Law

The doctrine that law derives from reason and human nature, not merely human command

Overview

From the Stoics and Cicero through Aquinas to Grotius, natural law theory holds that binding rules flow from reason and the nature of things, discoverable apart from legislatures. It supplies the standard by which positive law can be judged unjust, fueling arguments from the Declaration of Independence to the Nuremberg prosecutions. Legal positivism challenged it by separating law from morality, yet natural law resurfaces wherever lawyers claim a regime loses the right to obedience. It remains the deep grammar of human rights.