This essay provides an account of the theory of natural law by the Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas, arguing that proponents and opponents of natural law in general tend to distort his theory. The essay first examines pre-Thomistic theology, especially the Neoplatonic and Voluntarist thought of St. Augustine, and compares it to Christian rationalism, which was later developed by St. Thomas from Aristotelian perspectives. Unlike St. Augustine and other earlier Christian thinkers, St. Thomas identified four types of laws—eternal law, divine law, natural law, and human positive law—and the essay exposes nature and the interrelationship between each of these types. Particular attention is paid to the role of synderesis in practical knowledge and reasoning, and the Thomistic conception of natural law does not refer primarily to some “law” resembling a series of commandments, but to the moral experience of being human or, to put it another way, to the inherent responsibility of the human being. The concept of natural law has taken various forms. The idea began with the ancient Greeks` conception of a universe governed in each individual by an eternal and immutable law, and in their distinction between what is intrinsically just and just by convention. This thesis analyzes the role of theology in the birth of classical liberal political philosophy in the West. It is intended to show that liberalism, like any system of ideas, is attached to theology and metaphysics, and that Christian theology played an important role in their creation. Finally, she argues that liberal political theory in the early modern period was based on very basic premises borrowed from Christian theology.
The topic of human rights is one of the most popular speeches in our world today. This is a pervasive feature of modern constitutional and socio-political reality. The enormous global interest in human rights issues has made their theory and practice almost a form of “religion in today`s world”. Human rights jurisprudence, particularly the post-Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, has found its way into Nigerian constitutions since independence. Like the Constitutions of 1963 and 1979, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 (as amended) contains provisions relating to human rights. This essay examines the claim that the “doctrine of natural law” appears to be a plausible rational basis and explanation of basic human rights that fit well with Nigerian indigenous human images in society. The study examines naturalism as a reliable anchor for “peace, order, good government and the well-being of all” people in Nigeria. It examines how naturalism constitutes the root and sympathetic explanation and basis of the fundamental and guaranteed rights enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution and other laws directly related to it. 100 Ave. Road, London, NW3 3PF England, United Kingdom. Dieser Artikel wurde veröffentlicht als: Johan Olsthoorn, « Grotius and the early modern tradition », in Cambridge Handbook on Just War, Hrsg.
Larry May (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), S. 33-56 Luo Jurisprudence Afrikan Juriprudence Theories Institutions and Procedures of Law und JusticE T. Murphy (ed.), Western Jurisprudence (Dublin, Thomson Round Hall, 2004), S. 94-125.