A STUDY OF ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING AND ANCIENT THEORIES OF JURISPRUDENCE: THE NATURAL LAW THEORY BY THOMAS AQUINAS

Abstract

There is no exact meaning of Natural Law. In jurisprudence, Natural Law, the law or the rule that imply in the nature which regulates the activities of nature in the organic or inorganic state. Natural laws are known as high law or laws of nature which have been constantly dominated on the full basis of politics, law, religion and social philosophy. Natural law is referred to as the sets of unwritten laws that include the nature of man or reasoning or the principles derived from God. It is an understanding of the moral law that is either given with nature and is known through reason or given independently of nature with moral reason. Natural law is universal and common to all humanity. It goes beyond differences in various formulations of culture, religion, and moral law. It is often understood as the basic source of norms whereby the moral norms that are formulated positively should be achieved when morally appropriate. Natural law is the oldest theories among all the ores, called as God made Laws, emanated from supreme source. These were evaluated by many jurist and philosophers like St. Thomas Aquinas. Thomas Hobbes, John Locke etc. These philosophers used natural law as the framework for criticizing and structuring the law in human existence.