Natural Law Flashcards
Summarise epicureanism
-Purp of law: escape natural dog-eat dog nat. of world
-Key Ideas:
-authority forms from need to escape the dED world
-‘natural laziness’ inclined towards peace
-people voluntarily give up their nat. freedom 4 protect.
-AUTHORITY forms
-ppl bound to rules
- law forms
-law simply the binding rules of authority
-not judged on moral content j law BVO existen.
-led by utilitas
Summarise stoicism (in terms of law)
- law judged on moral content
-law=rule that is fair
-derived from ratio
-found within
-naturally existing
-NATURAL LAW
Describe the differences between epicureanism and stoicism
-Epicureanism= law not necessarily just just gov. by utilility
-Stoicism=law comes from a natural moral compass (right v. w)
-Epicureanism= form. concp. of law
-Stoicism= material concp. of law
Which figures are associated with the epicurean school of thought
-Epiquerus
-Thomas Hobbe
What did Aristotle believe about the conception of law?
-He believed that natural law existed independent of
-public opinion
-just existed
-“just by nature” =/ “just by law”
Name people who subscribed to epicureanism
-Thomas Hobbe
-Epicurues
Name people who subscribed to Stoicism
-Seneca
-Epicetas
-Emperor Marcus Aurelias
Summarise Gaius’ Ideas about Roman law (what u know lmao)
-Roman law can be divided into two parts
-Ius civile
-Law specific to the nation state (civitas)
-Ius gentium
-Law governing all of mankind
-customary law thought to be common to all people
-inter-nation relations governed by this
What were Gaius’ Ideas about Natural Law
-Some parts of ius gentium did not have to be written down because they were so self evident
-constituted parts of natural law
What is the difference between ius civile and ius gentium
ius civile–> particular to one society
-only appl. here
-between citizens of spec. nat.
ius gentium–> applicable across all nations
-between citizens of diff. nations
-largely not recorded (so self-evident!)
Explain the significance of the American declaration of Independence in terms of natural law
-exemplified the idea of “self-evident” truths
-Natural rights
-specifically
-Life, liberty and the Pursuit of happiness
-signified the success of a revolt based on the idea that
-ppl hv right to revolt against a rain that vio. NRs.
-rights they announced sourced from divine law (thought law came from god)
Describe the force of natural law in the Middle Ages
-aequitas canonica???
-Could help undermine man-made laws deemed to be unfair
-e.g: customs unreasonably imposed on certain people
-not exactly the case modern day
Explain the significance of Hugo Grotius’ Ideas on Natural law
-Believed that natural law did not stem from the divine
-no god still natural law
-scholars started looking at NAT. LAW in more sec. way
-wave of prom. scholars thinking more sec. about law
-unis established in this belief
-Thomas + Wolff (first profs)
Which other thinkers are associated with Grotius’ Ideas about natural law
-Thomas
-Wolff
Explain why the Oades case shows the how codification can act at the expense of natural law
-had to follow codified law
-exclusively
-despite bigamy being self-evidently illegal according to divine law (and thus natural law)
-ridiculousness of sit. + constant failure of appeal
-showcases nonsensicality of codification
-natural law should be able to set aside codified laws!!
+Codification cannot be complete
-should cater to natural law argu.
