For nearly two millennia the dominant theory of Justice in Western law was based on Natural law, the idea that moral standards are somehow entailed by the nature of the world and of human beings, that no clean division can be made between the notion of law and the notion of morality, and that positive law is at least under some circumstances morally and legally subordinate to Natural Law. Many major thinkers about law ? including, for instance, Aristotle, Cicero, Thomas Aquinas, Hugo Grotius, and John Locke ? advocated various versions of Natural Law, which also profoundly influenced the American Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.
In the last two centuries, however, Natural Law has been largely eclipsed by competing theories of Justice, especially consequentialism. Although Natural Law is not itself a religious doctrine nor dependent on religious thinking, the theory of Natural Law survives most visibly today within Roman Catholic theology; but it also frequently turns up in public debates over hot-button social issues like abortion and gay marriage.
This seminar will survey the range of writings that constitute the Natural law tradition, and it will then examine both the reasons for the modern decline of Natural Law and the basis and extent of its modern survival.
30-page paper required. No final examination.