Natural Law

Natural Law Theories
Mr. Amit Guleria (Double Medalist; Gold and Silver)

Assistant Professor,
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Law University Sonepat
Email: amitdbranlu@gmail.com
Meaning of Natural Law
Natural law is known as higher law or the law of nature which has been
continually dominating the entire basis of politics, Law, and social philosophy.
Natural law, in philosophy, a system of right or justice held to be common to all
humans and derived from nature rather than from the rules of society,
or positive law.
Natural law is said to be these sets of unwritten law which contains the
principles of ought as revealed by the nature of man or reason or derived from
God.
Natural law is universal and common to all humanity.
Natural Law Theory: It is a legal theory that recognizes the connection between
the law and human morality as deeply connected.
❖ Morality relates to what is right and wrong and what is good and bad.
❖ Natural law theorists believe that human laws are defined by morality, and
not by an authority figure, like a king or a government.
❖ Therefore, we humans are guided by our human nature to figure out what
the laws are, and to act in conformity with those laws.
❖ The Articles like Article 14, 19 and 21 have been widely interpreted in the India
scenario especially by the India judiciary due to largely impact of natural law
theory.
❖The expression 'natural law' is derived from the belief that human morality
comes from nature.
Nature and Purpose: Everything in this nature has a definite purpose,
including humans.
According to natural law theorists our purpose, is to live a good and pleasant life.
Therefore, actions that work against that purpose i.e., the actions that would
prevent a fellow human being from living a good and pleasant life are
considered 'unnatural', 'immoral’ or ‘unethical’.
Purpose of Law: To provide justice. From a natural law perspective, a law that
doesn't provide justice (an unjust law) is considered 'not a law at all.’
Therefore, a law that is flawed (unjust) is one that no one should follow.
In short, any law that is good is moral, and any moral law is good.
Legal positivism is a legal theory that is the opposite of the natural law
theory.
Juristic View Points on Natural Law
Dias and Hughes, “Natural law is a law which derives its validity from its own
inherent values, differentiated by its living and organic properties, from the law
promulgated in advance by the State or its agencies”.
Cohen, “Natural law is not a body of actual enacted or interpreted law enforced by
courts, it is in fact a way of looking at things and a humanistic approach of judges
and Jurists”.
Blackstone, “The natural law being co-existent with mankind and emanating from
God Himself, is superior to all other laws. It is binding over all the countries at all the
times and no man-made law will be valid if it is contrary to the law of nature”.
Decline of Natural Law: 19th Century Unfavourable to Natural Law
The decline of natural law theories took place in the 18th– 19th Century with
the advancement of empirical method of study and scientific behavioral.
A priori- based on theoretical concepts/philosophy.
Natural law theories were denounced primarily because its source was said to
be a divine entity.
Austin as a positivist rejected Natural law on the ground that Natural law was
ambiguous and misleading and mercilessly criticized the natural law school
calling it as ‘simple nonsense’.
The decline of natural law theories took place in the 18th– 19th Century with the
advancement of empirical method of study and scientific behavioural. Natural law
theories were denounced primarily because its source was said to be a divine
entity.
20th Century the Revival of Natural
❖ The theories which over emphasized ‘legal positivism’ failed to satisfy the aspiration of the people because of they refused to
accept morality and reason as element of law.
❖ The impact of materialism on the society and the changed socio-political conditions compelled the 20th century legal thinker to
look for some value-oriented ideology which could prevent general moral degradation of the people.
The main authors of the 20th century the Revival of natural law are as follows as:-
Rudolf Stammler (1856 – 1938): A German Jurist
Stammler defined law as, “Species of will, others-regarding, self-authoritative and inviolable”. Inviolable here means unbreakable.
Law is a kind of volition. It is a mode of arranging human acts according to the relation of means and purposes.
According to Greeks it was “species of reason”. But in modern naturalists believed in “species of will”. So it’s a shift from
“reason” to “will”.
For Stammler a just law was the highest expression of man’s social life”.
It aims at preservation of freedom of individuals.
Stammler defines the philosophy of law as the theory of those propositions about
law, which have universal validity.
But no study of positive law, however extensive and thorough, is capable of yielding
universally valid propositions.
These propositions must be universally valid, i.e. they must apply to all possible law,
past, present and future. They are in the first place propositions which are implied in
all law and without which no law is logically possible.
He was of the opinion that, there are two basic principles essential for a just law:
(1) principles of respects, and
(2) the principle of community participation.
With a view to distinguishing the new revived Natural Law from the old one, he
called the revived (new) natural law as ‘Natural Law with variable content’.
According to Stammler, law of nature means ‘just law’ which harmonizes the
purposes in the society.
The purpose of law is “not to protect the will of one” but to “unify the purposes of
all”.
• Kohler: Kohler defined law as, “the standard of conduct which in consequence
of the inner impulse that urges upon men towards a reasonable form of life,
emanates from the whole, and is forced upon the individual”.
• He says that there is no eternal law and the law shapes itself as the society
advances morality and culturally in course of evolution.
• He tried to free the 19th century Natural Law from the rigid and a priori
approach and attempted to make it relativistic, adapting itself to the changing
norms of the society.

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Natural Law Theories

Mr. Amit Guleria (Double Medalist; Gold and Silver)

A priori- based on theoretical concepts/philosophy.

Rudolf Stammler (1856 – 1938): A German Jurist

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