Natural law thought

“An unjust law is no law”

Natural law is law that the norms come from God, from universe and from human reason. Therefore natural law is described as eternal law. Law never changes, never vanishes, and is applied by its own.

Natural law thought believes that right brings about the law, not vice versa. Positive law should be in line with morality, if not then that positive law would be invalid.

According to Thomas Aquinas, “Morality comes from natural law. (The highest level of law is determined by God).”

According to Fuller, “ Morality comes from the legal system itself. It is an internal part of the legal system (especially the principle of legality).”

According to Dworkin and Fuller, morality is decided, not discovered. It is not given.

LAW=NORMS (FAIRNESS AND JUSTICE VALUES)

There are two principles:

1.     Justice principle (God’s reason) – It is true and just because it is ordered by God

2.     Truth principle (Human’s reason) – It has been true and just, therefore God is willing to order it.

Justice consists of procedural justice (fairness) and substantive justice (the true justice).

According to St. Agustine (354-430), Metaphysics is the first philosophy as the initial science to know God and Philosophy is the underling of theology. Lex aeterna is the plan (disposition) from God for the whole universe. Lex naturalis is the persistent plan that is located inside human’s mind so everyone is able to grasp it.

There are three version of Natural law thought:

1.  Traditional version

According to Surya Prakash Sinha, divine law is not the same with lex divina. In his perspective, divine law is supreme because the whole universe is governed by divine reason. Not all of divine law is intelligible to human. The intelligible part reveals itself through eternal law. Principles of eternal law are revealed in natural law and from natural law are derived all human laws.

 According to Shidarta

2. Inner morality version

According to Lon Fuller (1902-1978), Positive law should be I line with morality. If not, it is still valid as long as it is not contradictory with “inner morality of law”

3.     Interpretive version

According to Ronald Dworkin, Positive law should be I line with morality. If not, it is still valid as long as it can be still morally interpreted. Law is not universally recognized as immanent natural law. So, law is the result of legal thinking constructions of legal practitioners. It’s a matter of interpretation.