JURISPRUDENCE

JURISPRUDENCE
NATIONALLAWIN
STITUTEUNIVERS
ITY,BHOPAL

PROJECT ON

Aristotle to Fuller: The journey of natural law

from eternal order to Justice as purpose of Law

SUBMITTED BY – VIVEK GAUTAM - 2017 B.A.LL.B. 38 – FOURTH YEAR

SUBMITTED TO – MR. RANJAN RAI – ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, NLIU

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P-I

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Research Objective
 To understand the meaning of Law

 To analyze the understanding of Natural Law theory of Aristotle

 To analyze the understanding of Divine Law theory of Aquanas

 To analyze the understanding of the theory of Fuller

 To analyze the journey of natural law from eternal order to Justice as purpose of Law

Statement of Purpose
The understanding of Natural law was shifted from eternal order to Justice because of the
changes of ideologies in the society and philosophers gave their theories according to the then
prevailing conditions.

Hypothesis
In this study I have assumed the theories of Aristotle, Aquinas and Lon Fuller to be true. In pre-
Christianity era the understanding was on Natural order of Law and nature was the centre of
Universe, during the advent of Christianity the understanding of Natural Law was on Divine Law
and God was the centre of Universe and in 19 th century the understanding of Law was shifted on
morality and justice with Revived Natural Law.

Research Methodology
This report is based on primary as well as secondary data, however primary data was given more
importance since it is overhearing factor in attitude studies. One of the most important users of
research methodology is that it helps in identifying the problem, collecting, analyzing the
required information data and providing an alternative solution to the problem. It also helps in
collecting the vital information that is required by the instructor to assist them for the better
understanding on the topic given and for the appropriate conclusion.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

Pg. no.

1. Chapter 1
Introduction………………………………………………………………………….
2. Chapter 2
Natural Law…………………………………………………………………………….
3. Chapter 3
Natural Law theory- Aristotle……………………………………………………………
Divine Law Theory- Thomas Aquinas…………………………………………………..
Revived Natural Law Theory- Lon Fuller……………………………………………….
4. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….
5. Review of Literature……………………………………………………………………..

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Introduction
Law is very dynamic. Though we have many philosophies of law but each philosopher has
interpreted law according to their sense on the basis of the prevailing conditions in the society
during their time and hence it is very subjective. Human societies have evolved different legal
theories according to the needs of the society known as Natural Law, Divine Law and Revived
Natural Law. Natural Law is based on the Natural order of Law i.e. law is all about nature and
human beings have to be in resonance with the course of nature. Greek philosophers of the time
opined that laws of nature are certain and anything that is certain is perfect. They differentiate it
with human legal order and stated that human legal order if operated by cosmic laws or law of
nature than it tends to become perfect.
With the rise of Christianity in 3rd and 4th century the understanding of law was shifted on the
God and the church became the supreme authority and Divine law became the supreme law.
Hence, the position of super state was given to the Roman Catholic Law. The period was often
considered as Dark age because science was on setback during that time. The society started
developing in this direction, which brought end of feudalism as well as the supremacy of the
church. Now the period of renaissance began and people started thinking scientifically and
started demanding evidence for everything. Feudalism came to an end and industrialization
began to evolve so the ideology was shifted towards liberalism and people started questioning
Christian faith.

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With the advent of Legal positivism, and philosophers like Jeremy Bentham and Austin whose
understandings were based on command and sanction. The problem with their theory is that they
ignored the concept of morality and as we know Law and Morality goes hand in hand which give
rise to the Revived Natural Law. Revived Natural Law suggested that Human legal system
should take into account the principles based on morality. According to the theorists from this
school such as Fuller, law should not be followed as it is but only ‘just’ law should be followed
and obeyed.

Natural Law

The Greek society was the prominent society that observed phenomena of the Nature in the
ancient history. Phenomena that is purely natural such as rising of the sun from the east and
setting up of sun in the west: these phenomena are eternal, hence non-breakable. According to
them, there is a set order of the nature in which it became and is constant, certain and perfect.
The philosophers of this school believe that the existing legal system is imperfect as it is against
the order of the nature and anything against the order of the nature is imperfect. So comes the
definition of Natural law. Natural law is an arrangement of right or justice held to be regular to
all people and got from nature as opposed to from the standards of society, or positive law.

Natural law is the assortment of general good standards which has set out the moral and good
rules to direct human lead. It is otherwise called the Law of Nature. Natural law exists, in any
event, when it isn't perceived by the administration or state. Its hypothesis has impacted the
establishment of custom-based law in England. There are different defenders of the common law
like Aristotle, Plato, Hobbes, Cicero, and so forth

The philosophers of this school such as Aristotle believe that when Human legal system tends to
work as per the ‘cosmos law’ and the law of Nature, it tends to become perfect. In this way, what
is imperfect tends to become perfect. Though, it is true that there is a change in the theories of

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Natural Law as per the political realities of the times of those who have propounded the theories
which we will further discuss in the project.

In simplest term we can say that Natural law is something that is without human intervention and
is completely related to nature. This means whatever is there in the society it is in consonance
with the nature and is away from the touch of human object. This is Classical Natural Law and
later the shift from Nature was taken to the Divine law as a part of Natural Law according to
which Law is already set by the God and not the human law, but the law of God is supreme and
anything which is in contradiction to the law of God, the latter will prevail. Aquinas belongs to
this school of thought. Greek philosophies emphasize on the ‘just’ man, a man who abides or
follows the law of the state as they believed that the laws of the city state are from natural order.
This was recognition of ‘Eternal Cosmic Order’. Aristotle identified moral rectitude with justice.

The journey of the Natural Law then shifted to the Justice as the purpose of Law when Lon
Fuller propounded his theory which is also known as ‘Revived Natural Law’ which involves two
different systems, human law and social morality including the understanding of Justice as the
purpose of law. According to him there is a deeper connection between ruling by law and the
pursuits of moral ends.

The combination of Classical Natural Law, Divine Law and Revived Natural Law, hence give
brief view of the Journey of Natural Law from Eternal cosmic order to justice as the purpose of
law. The first part of this project deals with the Natural law theory of Aristotle, the second first
deals with them Divine Law theory of Aquinas and the third part deals with the Revived Natural
theory of Lon Fuller.

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Aristotle

There were three great philosophers in Greece: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Here in this section
we will discuss about the Natural Law theory of Aristotle. As classical natural theorists claimed
that just man are those who abides with the law of the polis i.e. state which is attributable to
morality. The moral man was the just man and the moral state was the just state. The important
question that lies here is that what makes a just person and a just state? According to teleological
view, everything and every being have a position and a purpose in the overall scheme of the
universe. So a just person in one who work in consonance with his position in the Universe. So
the question is to identify just conduct and a just man. To figure out ‘just conduct’ Greek
philosophers turned to examine human mind to discover justice. According to them, it’s the
nature of the man which determines his justness.

Greek way of thinking accentuated the differentiation between "nature" from one perspective and
"law", "custom", or "convention" on the other. What the law directed would be relied upon to
change all around, yet what was "ordinarily" ought to be the equivalent all over. A "law of
nature" would consequently have the flavor even more a conundrum than something that clearly
existed. Against the traditionalism that the qualification among nature and custom could cause,
Socrates and his scholarly beneficiaries, Plato and Aristotle, placed the presence of natural
justice or normal right. Of these, Aristotle is known as the father of natural law.

“Aristotle believed that there is a natural justice that is valid everywhere with the same force; that
this natural justice is positive, and does not exist by "people thinking this or that.”

Aristotle was an empiricist whose theory was based on observations and results coming out of
observations. He believed in ‘Ontological Order’ which is a branch of metaphysics that believe
in nature of being or natural order. Aristotle talked about the natural order of the universe and the
justice confirms to the law of this order. The best proof of Aristotle's having thought there was a
characteristic law originates from the Rhetoric, where Aristotle noticed that, beside the "specific"

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laws that each individuals has set up for itself, there is a "typical" law that is as per nature.
Specifically, he cites Sophocles and Empedocles:

Universal law is the law of Nature. For there really is, as everyone to some extent divines, a
natural justice and injustice that is binding on all men, even on those who have no association or
covenant with each other. It is this that Sophocles' Antigone clearly means when she says that the
burial of Polyneices was a just act in spite of the prohibition: she means that it was just by
nature:1

“Not of to-day or yesterday it is,

But lives eternal: none can date its birth."

And so Empedocles, when he bids us kill no living creature, he is saying that to do this is
not just for some people, while unjust for others:

"Nay, but, an all-embracing law, through the realms of the sky

Unbroken it stretcheth, and over the earth's immensity.”

According to Aristotle the State is the part of this natural order and a person could lead a good
life when he participates in a State. His main focus was on finding the truth and truth can only be
discover by those who have intellectual virtues. So, to find out principles ‘right conduct’ he
pronounced two kinds of knowledge i.e. knowledge of variable and invariable things. The former
is dynamic and tends to change and the latter is constant such as the rising and setting of the sun.
An individual should know the difference between variable and invariable things in order to
make a right choice which also gives the distinction between ‘pure reason and practical reason’.
He says that individual can get this natural order of things by following truth, which can only be
discovered by understanding knowledge of both kinds. So the keywords in his theory are right
conduct, right reasoning and quest of truth and of an individual chooses this rightly every laws of
the State shall be respected. As a result there won’t be any unjust person and unjust state.

He further gave five modes of thinking in order to discover the truth:

1. Scientific Enquiry

1
Aristotle, Rhetoric, Book I – Chapter 13, "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-02-13. Retrieved
2012-12-22.

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2. Intuition
3. Art or Technical skills
4. Prudence
5. Wisdom

So if the person uses above-mentioned modes in the right order to make right choice then the
person not only execute the right conduct but will also know the natural order of things.

Now the question arises how actually nature helps in understanding Natural Law? The
answer lies in the goal which Nature wants to achieve. The end of the Natural order is the
state. Natural order is the means and the state is the goal.

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Thomas Aquinas

“For St. Thomas Aquinas (1224/25–1274 CE), natural law and religion were inextricably
connected. He believed that natural law "participates" in the divine "eternal" law. Aquinas
thought eternal law to be that rational plan by which all creation is ordered, and natural law is the
way that human beings participate in the eternal law. He further posited that the fundamental
principle of natural law is that we should do good and avoid evil. The ethical way of thinking of
St. Thomas Aquinas includes a merger of two customs: Aristotelian eudaimonism and Christian
religious philosophy. From one perspective, Aquinas follows Aristotle in imagining that a”
“demonstration is positive or negative contingent upon whether it adds to or hinders us from our
appropriate human end—the telos or last objective at which all human activities point. That telos
is eudaimonia, or bliss, where "satisfaction" is perceived regarding finish, flawlessness, or
prosperity. Accomplishing joy, nonetheless, requires a scope of scholarly and good ethics that
empower us to comprehend the idea of satisfaction and rouse us to look for it in a solid and
predictable manner. On the other hand, Aquinas accepts that we can never accomplish total”
“happiness in this life. For him, last joy comprises in blessedness, or powerful association with
God. Such an end lies a long ways past what we through our common human limits can achieve.
Consequently, we not just need the intellectual virtues but also the God to change our tendency
—to consummate or "idolize" it—with the goal that we may be fit to partake in divine
blessedness.”

He have the example of Adam and Eve and explains that how sin is the intrinsic part of the
humans and only God can set free from the sin. So there is a spiritual, rather Christian belief that
Adam and Eve ate the cursed apple despite of the warning given by the God and hence
committed the sin which now forms the part of the human nature. Therefore he says that while
our inclination isn't completely defiled by wrongdoing, as confirmed by the way that our wills
are at hostility with God's. Subsequently we need God's assistance so as to reestablish the benefit
of our inclination and carry us into congruity with his will. To this end, God saturates us with his
beauty which comes as supernaturally launched ethics and endowments.

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His theory is the only reason due to which Roman Catholic church acquired the most prominent
position in Europe. Christianity was spreading and in the lack of scientific knowledge people
blindly believed as to what philosophers and Church was preaching. One can think that in the
absence of scientific knowledge until the period of renaissance people blindly believed the
authorities of church and whenever human law was in contradiction of the law of church then the
law of latter will prevail. In the dark time, Roman Catholic Church, Church acted as a super
state. He said, “We rather obey the God, than the man”. In order to distinguish between ‘good’
and ‘bad’, he depended on naturalistic morality. It is a kind of morality that drives its value from
the nature though the help of philosophers. Nature is the ultimate god. As mentioned in the first
paragraph, one has to take help of the God in order to distinguish between good and bad.

What is the Natural law? We may endeavor to respond to this inquiry by considering both the
significance of the expression "law" just as the law's beginning. On Aquinas' view, a law is "a
standard or proportion of human acts, whereby an individual is instigated to act or is controlled
from acting". Somewhere else, he portrays a law as a "direct of functional explanation exuding
from a ruler". At an overall level, at that point, a law is a statute that fills in as a manual for and
proportion of human activity. Consequently whether an activity is kindness rely upon whether it
adjusts to or maintains the significant law. Here we should review from a prior segment that, for
Aquinas, a human activity is positive or negative contingent upon whether it adjusts to reason. At
the end of the day, reason is the measure by which we assess human acts. Along these lines
Aquinas imagines that the laws that administer human activity are expressive of reason itself.

“Now we will address the law’s origin. According to Aquinas, every law is ultimately derived
from what he calls the eternal law. The “eternal law” refers to God’s providential ordering of all
created things to their proper end. We participate in that divine order in virtue of the fact that
God creates in us both a desire for and an ability to discern what is good (he calls this ability the
“light of natural reason”). According to Aquinas, “it is this participation in the eternal law by the
rational creature that is called the natural law”. On this view, natural law is but an extension of”
“the eternal law. For by it God ordains us to final happiness by implanting in us both a general
knowledge of and inclination for goodness. Note here that the natural law is not an external
source of authority. Nor is it a general deontic norm from which more specific precepts are
inferred. As Aquinas understands it, the natural law is a fundamental principle that is weaved

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into the fabric of our nature. As such, it illuminates and gives us a desire for those goods that
facilitate the kind of flourishing proper to human beings. This point deserves further discussion.”

As indicated by Aquinas, individuals have an intrinsic propensity whereby they reason as per
what he calls "first standards." First standards are crucial to all inquiry. They incorporate things
like the guideline of non-inconsistency and law of avoided center. These standards are
indemonstrable as in we don't get them from some earlier show. To put the issue another way,
they are not realities at which we show up by methods for contention or thinking. They are the
standards from which all thinking continues. And keeping in mind that we don't get them from
some earlier arrangement of realities, a second's appearance would show that they by and by give
the conditions to comprehensible request. So, human thinking doesn't build up the reality of first
standards, it relies upon them.

“The natural law functions in a way that is analogous to the aforementioned principles. According
to Aquinas, all human actions are governed by a general principle or precept that is foundational
to and necessary for all practical reasoning: good is to be done and evil is to be avoided. This
principle is not something we can ignore or defy. Rather, it is an expression of how practical
thought and action proceed in creatures such as ourselves. Whenever we deliberate about how
we should act, we do so by virtue of a natural inclination to pursue (or avoid) those goods (or”
“evils) that contribute to (or deter us from) our perfection as human beings. The goods for which
we have a natural inclination include life, the procreation and education of offspring, knowledge,
and a civil social order (ST IaIIae 94.2). Whether there are additional goods that are emblematic
of the natural law will depend on whether they in fact contribute to our rational perfection.”

Aquinas said that Human Justice can be right or wrong, but justice according to will of God is
bound to be correct and this justice is universal. What is true today shall also be true after 1000
years. He further divided law into four categories:

1. Eternal Law – It is the Law of the God. Everything in the universe is controlled by this
eternal law and is out from the reach of the humans because it is unlimited and the human
mind is limited.

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2. Divine Law- Law revealed in the form of scriptures are Divine Law. These scriptures are
propounded by the God itself and with the help of messengers these laws became law of
the land such as Holy Bible.
3. Human Law- Those laws that are made by the states or human beings.
4. Natural Law- It is the law which human being tries to understand what is the law of God
using their logic and reasons. Reason is important is finding the law of God.

As mentioned earlier that this was the time when Christianity in Europe became powerful
because Church became supreme and it started ordaining everything and as he said that ‘State is
subordinate to church because we ought to obey God rather than man’. But the key point here is
that right reason became the important tool to identify the law of God.

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Revived Natural Law - Lon Fuller

A significant part of the new emphasis on characteristic law can be followed to the
disappointment of positivism, the predominant lawful way of thinking, to give important
responses to the issues of life in the public arena; likewise to the dread created by the unpleasant
encounters of “lawless law" ordered by authoritarian fascisms as Adolf Hitler. One contemporary
legal philosopher who has been vitally aware of the failure of legal positivism and who was
articulately urging a return to the natural law even before the full tragedy of Hitler had run its
course, is the present Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence at the Harvard Law School, Lon
Luvois Fuller.

Revival of Natural Law

There are many reasons due to which ‘Natural Law’ theories got revived after the 19 th century. I
will discuss those reasons in my post research work. Reasons are as follows:

 Prior to the Revival of Natural Law theory of Lon Fuller, theory of Thomas Hobbes and
John Austin claimed Law to be ‘as it is’ and the element of justice and morality was kept
in isolation with law. This give rise to Revived Natural Law.
 The researchers or scientists themselves have acknowledged that logical examination
depends on certain pre-assumed thoughts and rather than the idea of reality due to the
prevalent time and circumstances so the adjustments in the logical examination
additionally got conceivable
 With the movement of new rising and expanding issues, positivists understood its
defenselessness.
 The aftereffect of realism on the general public and changed socio-political conditions
constrained the twentieth century legitimate scholars to search for some worth arranged
philosophy which could assist with forestalling moral corruption of individuals

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 Post both world wars there was lot of devastation on the planet and ethics, and standards
had no bearing on the planet. Also, it was understood that it is the need of an hour to
detail such laws which ought to be founded on Natural law standards.

Proponents of Natural Law

To study the revival of the natural law theory, one has to read main contribution of John M
Finnis and Lon Fuller. Further I will discuss the theory of John Finnis.

John Finnis

“He defines law as “primarily the rules made by regulative legal rules by an effective authority for
a complete community.” He has a very different perspective about natural law. He considers
natural law neither in the relation to human nature or metaphysics.”

The Supreme Court of United States in Lawrence v Texas2 has tended to the issue of profound
quality and the requirement for Natural law. Finnis has attempted to repeat and give present day
investigation and understanding to the Natural law. He additionally discards two significant
misguided judgments about the hypothesis of regular law.

 He denies the fact that natural law is derived from objectivity and a set pattern of
behaviour but instead asserts that it is an ascertainable from inside knowledge of innate
motivation which is different in different persons
 Natural law does not claim view that law is not law if it contradicts morality.

He has also laid down seven basic principles of human nature:

1. Life
2. Knowledge
3. Play
4. Aesthetic pleasure
5. Sociability

2
 539 U.S. 558 (2003)

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6. Practical reasonableness
7. Religion

Lon Fuller

As we have seen earlier that the Natural law understanding was time and again influenced by the
prevailing conditions and lack of scientific knowledge. So after sometime the understanding of
Natural Law was not influenced by theological understanding but by the understanding of Justice
and morality which is known as ‘Revived Natural Law’ theory. It involves two different systems,
human law and social morality which can be equated with our aspirations or understanding of
Justice in a legal system. HLA Hart, who was a modern legal positivist denied that once law is
made, it has to do nothing with non-legal social factors such as morality and justice. He also said
that certain rules are as a matter of practice and observance which means there is a sense of
morality. Though he have not said that morality triumps law but yes while enacting law one has
to take into account the morality. Fuller raised the notion of morality, to higher level of
generality which means morality can be equated to Justice.

As indicated by him, the uprightness of the laws is resolved principally by the cycle which it uses
to achieve its objectives. The morality that makes law conceivable requires culmination of 8
conditions-

 There must be formation of general rules to guide actions

 These rules framed must be made known to public
 The rules should be prospective in nature, meaning thereby they should suit to future
and not regressive
 They should be framed in such a way that they are comprehensive and easily
understandable
 These should be consistent with other rules
 They should be stable in a reasonable way, that is should not be changed too
frequently

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 There shouldn’t be any contradiction in laws

 There must be clarity in the law

“Fuller views these eight canons as “a procedural version of natural law”. A total failure to satisfy
any one of these conditions of legal morality, does not, in Fuller’s view, simply produce a bad
system of law; it results, he declares, “in something that is not properly called a legal system at
all, except perhaps in the Pickwickian sense in which a void contracts can still be said to be one
kind of contract”. Thus the intrinsic legitimacy of a legal system seems for Fuller to rest on
requirements of a somewhat structural and technical character. He is convinced, however, that a
legal order which lives up to these requirements will usually be essentially sound and just in its
substantive contents.”3

In his book, The Morality of Law, Fuller contends that all frameworks of law contain an
"internal morality" that forces on people a hypothetical commitment of compliance. In the theory
of HLA Hart law is itself the end but in the theory of Fuller Legal system is the means and there
is a goal to achieve excellence. Fuller dismissed customary strict types of Natural law
hypothesis, which see human law as established in a reasonably comprehensible and all around
restricting "higher law" that comes from God or termed as Divine Law. Fuller acknowledged the
thought, found in the compositions of some customary regular law scholars, that now and again
unjustifiable laws or lawful frameworks are not law

In his famous Reply to Professor Hart4 in the Hart–Fuller debate, he wrote:

“I would like to ask the reader whether he can actually share Professor Hart's indignation that, in
the perplexities of the postwar re-construction, the German courts saw fit to declare this thing
not a law. Can it be argued seriously that it would have been more beseeming to the judicial
process if the postwar courts had undertaken a study of "the interpretative principles" in force
during Hitler's rule and had then solemnly applied those "principles" to ascertain the meaning
of this statute? On the other hand, would the courts really have been showing respect for Nazi
law” if they had constructed the Nazi statutes on their own, quite different, standards of
interpretation?

3
H.L.A.Hart,Law Review,78;Harvard Law Review at 1287-1288
4
 Lon L. Fuller, "Positivism and Fidelity to Law: A Reply to Professor Hart," Harvard Law Review, Vol. 71, No. 4
(Feb., 1958), pp. 630-672

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“Professor Hart castigates the German courts and Radbruch, not so much for what they believed
had to be done, but because they failed to see that they were confronted by a moral dilemma of a
sort that would have been immediately apparent to Bentham and Austin. By the simple dodge of
saying, "When a statute is sufficiently evil it ceases to be law," they ran away from the problem
they should have faced.”

“This criticism is, I believe, without justification. So far as the courts are concerned, matters
certainly would not have been helped if, instead of saying, "This is not law," they had said, "This
is law but it is so evil we will refuse to apply it." To me there is nothing shocking in saying that a
dictatorship which clothes itself with a tinsel of legal form can so far depart from the morality of
order, from the inner morality of law itself, that it ceases to be a legal system. When a system
calling itself law is predicated upon a general disregard by judges of the terms of the laws they”
“purport to enforce, when this system habitually cures its legal irregularities, even the grossest,
by retroactive statutes, when it has only to resort to forays of terror in the streets, which no one
dares challenge, in order to escape even those scant restraints imposed by the pretence of
legality - when all these things have become true of a dictatorship, it is not hard for me, at least,
to deny to it the name of law.”

The Radbruch doctrine

While discussing the shift of Natural law to Justice one shouldn’t forget the contribution og
Gustav Radbruch who was a professor of law at the University of Heidelberg and one of the
leading German philosophers before the Second World War. The idea of law, accoding to
Radbruch, has three aspects:-

a. Law serves expediency

b. It serves justice

c. It promotes legal certainty

According to him, a definitive objective of the law is the acknowledgment of Justice. However
justice is a somewhat unclear and uncertain idea. It requests that the individuals who are
equivalent be treated in an equivalent way, while the individuals who are distinctive be dealt
with contrastingly as indicated by their disparities.

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CONCLUSION

So here we have traced the journey of Natural Law from eternal cosmic order to Justice as the
purpose of law with the theories of Aristotle, Aquinas and Lon Fuller

While concluding the project I would like to make few points

 It might be noticed that the vast dominant part of these lawful hypotheses were regulating
in character as in they were worried about the central destinations to be sought after by
social control through law. As such, they managed he "ought" as opposed to with the "is”
of the lawful life. This portrayal would be material to most hypotheses of Natural law, to
the way of thinking of supernatural optimism, to utilitarianism, and to specific
adaptations of sociological law
 In this study I have assumed the theories of Aristotle, Aquinas and Lon Fuller to be true.
In pre-Christianity era the understanding was on Natural order of Law and nature was the
centre of Universe, during the advent of Christianity the understanding of Natural Law
was on Divine Law and God was the centre of Universe and in 19 th century the
understanding of Law was shifted on morality and justice with Revived Natural Law with
the theory of Lon Fuller
 The law is a huge mansion with numerous lobbies, rooms, alcoves, and corners. It is
amazingly difficult to enlighten with a searchlight each room, niche and corner at the
same time, and his particularly obvious when the arrangement of enlightenment, as a
result of impediments of mechanical information and experience, is deficient, or possibly
Defective. Therefore, the understanding of Natural law was shifted from eternal order to
Justice because of the changes of ideologies in the society and philosophers gave their
theories according to the then prevailing conditions.

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Suggestion

“Philosophers and theologians throughout history have differed in their interpretations of Natural
Law. Theoretically, the precepts of natural law should be constant throughout time and across the
globe because natural law is based on human nature, not on culture or customs.”

When a child tearfully exclaims, “It’s not fair [that]..." or when viewing a documentary about the
suffering of war, we feel pain because we're reminded of the horrors of human evil. And in doing
this, we are also providing evidence for the existence of natural law. A well-accepted example of
natural law in our society is that it is wrong for one person to kill another person.

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Review of Literature

Books

1. R.W.M. Dias, Jurisprudence, (2013), Indian Reprint, Lexis Nexis

2. Wayne Morrison, Jurisprudence: From Greeks to Post-modernism (1997) Reprint (2016)

Routledge

3. Raymond Wacks, Philosophy of Law: A very short introduction – The book answers to
the question of what law is? Does it consist of a set of universal moral principles in
accordance with nature or is it simply a collection of largely man-made, valid rules,
commands, or norms. These are merely some of the questions that lie in wait for anyone
attempting to uncover the meaning of the concept and the function of law.

Articles

1. https://iep.utm.edu/aq-moral/ -

“Thomas Aquinas : Moral Philosophy - This article first considers Aquinas’s metaethical
views. Those views provide a good context for understanding his unique synthesis of
Christian teaching and Aristotelian philosophy. Also, his meta-ethical views provide an ideal
background for understanding other features of his moral philosophy such as the nature of
human action, virtue, natural law, and the ultimate end of human beings. While
contemporary moral philosophers tend to address these subjects as discrete topics of study,
Aquinas’s treatment of them yields a bracing, comprehensive view of the moral life. This
article presents these subjects in a way that illuminates their interconnected roles.”

2. http://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/epgpdata/uploads/epgp_content/law/01._advanced__jurisprude
nce/11._lon_l._fuller/et/8122_et_et.pdf

PROJECT-I
 JURISPRUDENCE

Advanced Philosophy - Purpose of this module is to: (a) To discuss the theory of Lon L.
Fuller and revival of natural law (b) To examine the theory of Lon L. Fuller in the light of the
Indian legal system (c) To examine the conflict between obligation to obey law of a citizen
and a person’s obligation to do what is morally right.

3. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-14269-9_6

“The Revival of Natural Law: Fuller and Finnis - Although Hume’s argument about the
impossibility of deriving an ought from an is (see Chapter 3) is ‘for many jurists … a
knock-down argument against all forms of natural law thinking’, in reality ‘it merely
deprives natural lawyers of that most revered of philosophic weapons, the deductive
syllogism’. (Harris, Legal Philosophies, 2nd edn, 1997, pp. 12, 13.) The possibility
remains, therefore, of seeking alternative forms of rational support for the idea of natural ”
“law, and as the scale of the Nazi atrocities committed before and during the Second World
War became known, the desire to do so revived. In the event, two major, and quite distinct,
theoretical expositions emerged. The earlier was contained in a set of lectures given by Lon
L. Fuller, an American professor of law, in 1963 before being revised and published the
following year as The Morality of Law. (The edition currently available was published in
1969, and contains a reply to some of the criticisms which followed the original version.)
The later is John Finnis’s Natural Law and Natural Rights, which was published in 1980.
We will consider each in turn. ”

4. https://blog.ipleaders.in/11052-2/

5. http://www.grkarelawlibrary.yolasite.com/resources/LLM-LT-1-Devanand.pdf

PROJECT-I