By Professor Brian M. McCall
Adapted from Chapter 1 of The Architecture of Law: Rebuilding Law in the Classical Tradition (Notre Dame Press 2018).
Summum jus, summa injuria.
The greater the law the higher the injury.1
With these words the great Roman orator Cicero warned against the dangers of an exaggerated exaltation of human law. His words take on a new poignancy in light of much contemporary jurisprudence. Not only have human positive laws grown exponentially in their number and scope, but the dominant theory of legal positivism has exalted the place of human positive law by building an entire system of law upon it alone. Human made law has come to be viewed as self-referential, self-justified, and essentially self-restrained. Classical natural law jurisprudence understood human law to be merely one part within a grand hierarchical edifice of laws. Human-made positive law is the detailed and varied decoration that brings into clearer view the lines, structure, and foundation of a larger legal edifice. This structure is organized and held together by a frame, or universal principles, and erected on a firm ontological foundation.
Continue reading “Introduction to Natural Law Jurisprudence (part 1)”