ILT Flashcards
What are the 12 Tables?
A set of laws inscribed on 12 bronze tablets that were displayed for everyone to see
A law code that better represented the plebeians and reduced the undue influence on Roman law of the patricians.
What is natural law?
The natural law is our (as rational creatures) participation in the eternal law.
Every human act of reason and will is governed by natural law, because reasoning is based on natural principles, and our will to get something done is based on our naturally-endowed appetite for the final outcome.
A way to evaluate human law.
Our capacity to reason and approximate eternal law.
An intermediary between human law and eternal law. Allows law of man and law of god to talk to one another, through reason.
What is eternal law?
The law that governs the entire universe. Since God governs the entire universe, the eternal law is the ‘dictate of practical reason’ coming from God.
What is human law?
The law that sanctions human behavior to be in accordance with eternal law in specific individual cases.
While we a natural tendency to live according to the general principles of eternal law, we do not always live perfectly within it (“not as regards the particular determinations of individual cases”).
Hence, there is a need for human law to further regulate individual behavior according to eternal law principles.
Who was Justinian?
The Eastern Roman Emperor who consolidated the Corpus Juris Civilis
Who was St. Thomas Aquinas?
Philosopher who wrote the Summa Theologiae.
He wanted to find a unified theory of law that reconciled the kings’ authority with the church’s authority.
In doing so, he tied the 3 strands together
What are the three jurisprudential strands of law introduced by St. Thomas Aquinas?
Divine Law
Natural Law
Human Law
What does St. Thomas Aquinas say about whether the law is always directed to the common good?
Because the law serves the common good, anything rule of law is only law to the extent that it serves the common good.
Anything that can be reasoned back to the common good has the force of law
Why does St. Thomas Aquinas argue that the law must pertain to reason?
- Law is a rule in the sense that it induces and restrains us from acting in a certain way.
- The rule of all human acts is reason since reason directs us to an end.
- Since reason is the principle of all rule of human acts, the law as a rule of human acts must pertain to reason as well.
What is the distinction between natural law and eternal law?
Only God can know eternal law, whereas the natural law is merely our ability to participate in it.
What is the impact of St Thomas Aquinas on the church?
He places the church in a uniquely powerful position, since now its religious teaching becomes inextricably involved with the validity of laws.
According to St Thomas Aquinas, when is a human law not a law?
When the human law is in disagreement with natural law but only a corrupt law.
What are the three strands of law?
Law as reason
Law as social order
Law as will
With whom did St Augustine identify the natural law with?
The Judeo-Christian God
What is ‘law as reason’?
Aristotle.
Law as a rational enterprise. Reason is what distinguishes man from animal. Reason is the highest form of human activity.
According to Aristotle, law is necessary to allow people who share a common way of life to be able to establish a state of affairs necessary for them to live together as free and equal members of society.
The function of law is to distinguish between what is just and what is unjust.
