Definitions for natural law
nat·u·ral law

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:2.0 / 1 vote

1. law, natural lawnoun

   a rule or body of rules of conduct inherent in human nature and essential to or binding upon human society

WiktionaryRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. natural lawnoun

   An ethical theory that posits the existence of a law whose content is set by nature and that therefore has validity everywhere.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Natural law

   Natural law (Latin: ius naturale, lex naturalis) is a system of law that purports to be based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independent of positive law (the enacted laws of a state or society). According to natural law theory, all people have inherent rights, conferred not by act of legislation but by "God, nature, or reason."The concept of natural law was documented in ancient Greek philosophy, including Aristotle, and was referred to in ancient Roman philosophy by Cicero. References to it are also to be found in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, and were later expounded upon in the Middle Ages by Christian philosophers such as Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas. The School of Salamanca made notable contributions during the Renaissance. Modern natural law theories were greatly developed in the Age of Enlightenment, combining inspiration from Roman law with philosophies like social contract theory. It was used in challenging theory of the divine right of kings, and became an alternative justification for the establishment of a social contract, positive law, and government—and thus legal rights—in the form of classical republicanism. Conversely, the concept of natural rights is used by others to challenge the legitimacy of all such establishments. In the early decades of the 21st century, the concept of natural law is closely related to the concept of natural rights. Indeed, many philosophers, jurists and scholars use natural law synonymously with natural rights (Latin: ius naturale), or natural justice, though others distinguish between natural law and natural right.Because of the intersection between natural law and natural rights, natural law has been claimed or attributed as a key component in the Declaration of Independence (1776) of the United States, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) of France, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) of the United Nations, as well as the European Convention on Human Rights (1953) of the Council of Europe.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. natural law

   Natural law is a system of universal moral and ethical principles which are inherent in human nature and are discoverable through reason. These laws govern human behavior and are seen as fundamental to human life and society, often believed to exist independently of human-made laws and societal rules. The concept of natural law comes from philosophy, theology, and law, suggesting there is a higher order that defines right and wrong and sits above human-made laws.

WikidataRate this definition:1.5 / 2 votes

1. Natural law

   Natural law, or the law of nature, is a system of law that is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature—both social and personal—and deduce binding rules of moral behavior from it. Natural law is classically contrasted with the positive law of a given political community, society, or state, and thus serves as a standard by which to criticize said positive law. In legal theory, on the other hand, the interpretation of positive law requires some reference to natural law. On this understanding of natural law, natural law can be invoked to criticize judicial decisions about what the law says but not to criticize the best interpretation of the law itself. Some scholars use natural law synonymously with natural justice or natural right, while others distinguish between natural law and natural right. Although natural law is often conflated with common law, the two are distinct in that natural law is a view that certain rights or values are inherent in or universally cognizable by virtue of human reason or human nature, while common law is the legal tradition whereby certain rights or values are legally cognizable by virtue of judicial recognition or articulation. Natural law theories have, however, exercised a profound influence on the development of English common law, and have featured greatly in the philosophies of Thomas Aquinas, Francisco Suárez, Richard Hooker, Thomas Hobbes, Hugo Grotius, Samuel von Pufendorf, John Locke, Francis Hutcheson, Jean Jacques Burlamaqui, and Emmerich de Vattel. Because of the intersection between natural law and natural rights, it has been cited as a component in the United States Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, as well as in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Declarationism states that the founding of the United States is based on Natural law.

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1. • Concept

How to pronounce natural law?

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Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of natural law in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of natural law in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of natural law in a Sentence

1. The Catechism:

   Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered,' they are contrary to the natural law.

2. I Ching:

   Water, everywhere over the earth, flows to join together. A single natural law controls it. Each human is a member of a community and should work within it.

3. Immanuel Kant, FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE METAPHYSICS OF ETHICS:

   Act as if the maxim of your action were to become through your will a general natural law

4. W. Clement Stone:

   The natural law of inertia: Matter will remain at rest or continue in uniform motion in the same straight line unless acted upon by some external force.

5. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee:

   When you say 'the wrong side of history,' let's just be reminded that there's been a relatively, and I mean a very relative brief history of same-sex marriage. The overwhelming history is the natural law of marriage, biblical marriage, so I don't think there's a side of history that's overwhelming at this point. People have their opinions.

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=natural law
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Natural_Law
3. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Law
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
5. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=natural law