- Natural School – Law tied to morality. Problem: morality itself is subjective, varies by culture and context, so defining law purely on morality was unstable.
- Analytical School – Law as a science. Systematic, experimental, rooted in “sovereign command” (Austin).
- Historical School – Law grows from customs and traditions. Morality is society-based and evolves with time.
- Sociological School – Law should serve a purpose: social welfare, development, harmony.
Natural Law
- People realized laws change with society → implies an eternal, universal law must exist.
- Features: eternal, universal, immutable, a priori (cannot be disproved).
- Grounded in morality, conscience, virtue, reason, divine order.
- Exists in nature, not created by man. Society accepts and enforces it.
- Universal truths: value of life, wrongness of lying, etc.
- Ethical dilemmas (trolley problem): raises questions on how value of human life is determined (age, power, contribution to society).
Ancient Schools
- Indian (Dharma) – Duty-based society. Rights arise only if duty is performed. Sources: Shruti (what is heard), Smriti (what is remembered). Law is discovered, not invented. Duty originates within.
- Greek –
- Heraclitus – Emphasis on destiny, order, reason, constant flux/change.
- Socrates – Law = virtue; knowledge is purity; reason exists within. Concepts of justice/truth accessed through reason.
- Plato – Theory of Forms: ideal vs. physical reality. Laws must correspond to objective moral law. Allegory of the Cave shows limits of human perception of truth. Sovereign authority must embody the ideal.
- Aristotle – Justice forms:
- Rectificatory (eye for an eye).
- Distributive (justice according to contribution).
Roman Schools
- Zeno / Stoics – Stoicism: focus on reason, detachment, means not ends. Influenced Roman law.
- Jus Naturale (natural law), Jus Generale (for citizens), Jus Gentium (for foreigners).
- Virtues: wisdom, justice, courage, moderation.
- Cicero – Law as highest reason, universal and natural, not man-made. Morality from within.
Medieval Phase
- Shift to Divine centrality. Law revealed by God, interpreted by Church. Monarchs under Church. Priests/popes as authority.
- Church justified supremacy by claiming man-made law would lead to tyranny or anarchy.
- St. Augustine – State = product of sin, so church must remain supreme.
- St. Thomas Aquinas – Broke law into four categories:
- Lex Eterna (eternal law).
- Lex Divina (divine law from scripture).
- Lex Naturalis (natural law, subset of eternal, understood by reason).
- Lex Humana (human law, man-made).
- Focus on man’s destiny, sin = deviation from divine purpose.
Renaissance / Social Contract Era
- Rise of reason and science → decline of church supremacy.
- Ideal Man (Ram, Jesus, Muhammad) as unreachable models, leading to pursuit of “Rational Man.”
- Secularism: separation of church and state.
Social Contract Theorists
- Hobbes – Humans are aggressive and equal in capacity → leads to chaos. State formed to avoid death and preserve desires/hope. Sovereign power must be absolute (criticized for being dictatorial).
- Locke – Rights surrendered but not absolutely. Liberty central. Sovereign limited by people’s retained rights.
- Rousseau – General Will. Inequality began with property. General will = collective good (life, equality, security). Laws derive from common will. But excluded women and lower classes. Father of French Revolution.
- Montesquieu – Climate/geography affect laws. Advocated separation of powers.
Immanuel Kant
- Cause and effect in law. True knowledge not just from experience but also perception.
Revival
- Split between law and morality. Rise of rationality and analytical thought.
- Analytical school had flaws (fascism), which led to renewed interest in natural law.
Questions
- Can law be defined if it is tied to morality?
- What is the real difference between law and morality?
- Do eternal ideals (truth, justice) require real-world existence to be valid?
- Does the value of human life change by age, power, or contribution?
- Where does morality come from – society or within a person?
- Is sovereign authority self-binding to ideals, or can it break them?
Case Studies (philosophical dilemmas)
- Trolley Problem – choosing between one vs. many lives; factors like age, innocence, social value complicate choices.
- French Revolution – influenced by Rousseau’s General Will and rejection of elite-driven law.
- Church vs. State (Medieval Europe) – supremacy of divine law over monarchs, challenged during Reformation.
Terms
- Natural Law – Eternal, universal, immutable law rooted in morality and reason.
- Sovereign Command – Austin’s analytical view of law as sovereign order.
- Theory of Forms – Plato’s idea of ideals vs. imperfect realities.
- Rectificatory Justice – Justice restoring balance (Aristotle).
- Distributive Justice – Justice according to contribution (Aristotle).
- Stoicism – Philosophy of reason and detachment.
- Lex Eterna / Divina / Naturalis / Humana – Aquinas’ four types of law.
- General Will – Rousseau’s concept of collective good guiding laws.
- Separation of Powers – Montesquieu’s governance principle.
References
- Austin – Analytical school.
- Heraclitus, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle – Greek contributions.
- Zeno, Cicero – Roman natural law thought.
- St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas – Medieval phase.
- Hobbes (“Leviathan”), Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu – Social contract theorists.
- Immanuel Kant – Causality and perception in law.
