The Concept Of The Natural Law Theory
Law is the system of rules that a government or society develops in order to deal with business agreements, crime and social relationships. Society is jungle without law and order. In society without law and order if you want a new phone you can just go to the shop steal the phone or point a gun on the shopkeeper and take the phone with you. But you can’t create this type of situation in a society with law and order because you know police will arrest you and the court will give you the punishment according to the laws. Law defend the society from evil, here evil refers to them who would seek harm us for no good reason. Laws also protect individual rights and liberties. In the 19 th and 20 th century many scholars and schools passed different theories of law. In this article we will study the theory given by the philosophical school or the natural school. We will also study the theories of the scholars of Natural School.
Theory of the natural law believes that our civil laws should be based on ethics, morality, and what is inherently correct. Natural Law Theory says that the law and morality are deeply connected. Morality relates to what is good and bad and what is right and wrong. Natural law theorists believe that the human laws can be defined by morality. It cannot be by an authority figure, like a government. Natural law is the theory in philosophy and ethics that says that humans possess intrinsic values that govern our reasoning and behavior. This theory says that the rules of right and wrong are inherit in people. The Natural law is constant throughout time and across the globe because it is based on human nature, not on culture or customs. The Natural Law theory is a very long-standing and widely influential theory in legal philosophy. According to the exponents of the natural school, legal philosophy is based on ethical values so as to motivate people for an honest living. According to the school, the purpose of law is to maintain law and order and the legal restrictions can be only justified only if they promote freedom of the person in society.
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher. He is one of the most influential philosophers in the history of western philosophy. Kant theory says to extend knowledge to supersensible realm of the speculative metaphysics. The reason that knowledge has these constraints, Immanuel Kant argues that the mind plays an active role in constituting the features of experience and limiting the mind's access only to the empirical realm of the space and time. Kant mentioned that to be acceptable in people should have the element of justness. Georg Hegel followed up Kant’s doctrine of freedom of will. In Hegel’s opinion the purpose of making laws is to restore harmony between conflicting egos of the society. According to Thomas Hobbes natural law is defined as a way in which a rational human seeking to survive and prosper would act. It could be discovered by considering human natural rights. According to St. Thomas Aquinas religion and natural law were intricately connected. Thomas believed that natural law play a part in the divine law or eternal law. He thought divine law to be that cogent plan by which all creation is ordered and natural law is the way that humans participate in the eternal or divine law. Thomas said that doing well and avoiding evil is the fundamental principle of natural law. C.S Lewis explained “According to the religious view, what is behind the universe is more like a mind than anything else we know… it is conscious, and has purposes and prefers one thing to another. There is a 'something' which is directing the universe, and which appears to me as a law urging me to do right.”
Natural law was founded by human beings on their disposition of choosing and reasoning between good and bad. Natural law is based on the moral theory and it states that laws should be on basis of morals and ethics and morals. The purpose and content law have constant variation from time to time depending on its usage and functions. The functions and purpose of its usage along with the needs of the time and circumstances play a crucial role.
