In a word, Anscombe is quite convinced that is properly intelligible within a broader tradition or context in which God is held (among other things) to be the ethical legislator. “The Natural Law: Theoretical Insights and Prospects for Renewal from G.E.M. But if that is so, how could the natural law be what Aquinas calls “law,” which is an ordinance of reason? It is often assumed, even by some eminent Thomists, that the natural inclinations Aquinas speaks of are feelings, desires or urges which provide us with basic data which inform us of the content of the natural law. Probably the most misunderstood part of Aquinas’ teaching on the natural law is his teaching on the natural inclinations. “The Natural Law, the Virtues, and Consequences In the Ethical Theory of Saint Thomas Aquinas” –David Klassen It is easy to see that these criticisms of natural law have little to do with the contents of lex iniusta and far more to do with the meta-ethical theories which natural law theorists tend to hold. Several of main objections have more to do with the traditional meta-ethical foundations upon which natural lawyers have built their theories than upon anything conceptually tied to the principle of lex iniusta of necessity.

“The Effects of Accepting Lex Iniusta non est Lex: A Reply to Hart” –Peter Furlong Anscombe by Zachary Mabee Ars Legis: Reflections on Aquinas’ “Christian” Articulation of the Natural and Human Law by Jeffrey Walkey and Spaemann’s Critique of Nuclear Energy: A Renewed Natural Law for the 20th-21st Centuries by Gregory Canning.Īdd To Cart Table of Contents Editorial Board Essays in this volume include: The Natural Law: Theoretical Insights and Prospects for Renewal from G.E.M. The first volume of Lex Naturalis includes new essays that contemplate natural law theory in the context of contemporary philosophical and legal discussions and debates, as well as Robert Chapman’s book review of Plato’s Revenge: Poliics in the Age of Ecology by William Ophuls and Richard Connerney’s review of Economic Justice and Natural Law by Gary Chartier. The journal seeks to present the vitality and variety of thought within that community of intellectuals who cannot and will not separate ethics from the conclusions that have been and are still being drawn from natural law.

In Lex Naturalis, these ethical questions that challenge our contemporary world as well as the relationships between natural law and related fields such as constitutional law and international law are examined, explored, and elucidated. The idea that human nature possesses an inherent sense of moral obligation no matter the culture, environment, or historical epoch is one that simply will not be eradicated by modern and postmodern assumptions about the varieties of nurturing and the physical basis of the mind. Theories of natural law have been under attack since the Enlightenment, but they still recur in old and new forms within both the academy and courts of law. This peer-reviewed journal intends to serve as a forum for the ongoing philosophical and legal discussion of the possibilities of thinking and action that are called for when one applies natural law theory, whether Platonic, Aristotelian, Ciceronian, Thomistic, or Kantian in its orientation, or is a product of more recent twentieth and twenty-first century contributions to the tradition.

Lex spress