Chapter 2

NATURAL LAW

Prof. Joel A. Reyes, J.D.,

Ph.D.
Chapter 2

NATURAL LAW
 Natural Law and Moral Norms
Moral norms and natural law are actually part
of the Christian moral teachings of the Catholic
Church since they are inherent in the very nature
of man.
 Natural Law and Moral Norms
Protestant theologians, however, tended to resist
using the natural law as part of the moral norms.
They believe that any teaching about Christian
ethics must be based only (and completely) on
what is found in the Bible. For them, the heavy
reliance on “reason” is fraught with both practical
and theological peril. Finally, due to original sin of
humanity, which is the fall of Adam and Eve, our
very human nature has been corrupted.
 Natural Law and Moral Norms
The Catholic response is that while human
reason was certainly affected by the fall, it was
not totally destroyed for man was redeemed
by Christ. Though, we cannot find the literal
word “natural law” in the Bible but the letter of
Paul to the Romans (2:12–17) is the locus
classicus for a sort of biblical proof text of the
validity of the whole natural law tradition in
moral theology.
(Romans 2:12–17)
 Natural Law and Moral Norms

The Lord also says in the Book of Prophet

Jeremiah, “I will place my law within them, and
write it upon their hearts” (31:33). This has
also a reference in the Letter to the Hebrews
8:10.
 Divisions of law

1. Natural law – eternal, divine, objective, and

universal law which is implanted by God in
human being endowed with reason.
(Ex.“Do good and avoid evil”)

2. Law of nature – the order and harmony of

the created world that resulted from the
diversity of beings and from the
relationships which exist among them.
(like the “Law of gravity.”)
 Divisions of law

3. Positive law – this law is promulgated

expressly or directly by a competent
authority. Thus, positive law can
1.Divine Positive Law – they are the Ten
Commandments, and the Law of Christ
which is the Law of Love.
2. Divine Human Positive Law – these are
the ecclesiastical laws of the Church, like
the 1983 Code of Canon Law and other
liturgical laws.
 Divisions of law

3. Positive law – this law is promulgated

expressly or directly by a competent
authority. Thus, positive law can

3. Human Positive Law – these are the

laws of the State, like Presidential
Decrees, Republic Acts, Executive
Orders, Ordinances, etc.
 The Moral Law

The Moral Law is a work of divine Wisdom.

It prescribes the ways and the rules of
conduct that lead to the promised beatitude
and it forbids the ways that turn away from
God. Moral norms, based on a moral vision
comprising basic moral values, express the
objective standard for judging moral good
and evil.
 Catholic Catechism on natural law

In Catholic morality, natural law means the

sum of the rights and duties which follow
directly from the nature of the human person,
endowed with reason and freedom, not to be
confused with social norms and conventions,
nor with public opinion, nor with civil law
(CCC 1954-60).
 Catholic Catechism on natural law

It is a participation in God’s wisdom and

goodness by man formed in the image of his
Creator. It expresses the dignity of the
human person and forms the basis of his
fundamental rights and duties.
 Three basic convictions of Natural Law

1.Grounded in our very nature as human

persons created by God,

2. supporting universal objective moral

values and precepts, and

3. knowable by all persons using their critical

reason, independent of their religious
affiliation.
Nature and Properties of
Natural Law

1. It is Unwritten.

2. It is Universal.

3. It is Immutable.

4. It is Indispensable.
1. It is Unwritten.
What is meant is rather constant tendency, the built
is directedness, rather than a written code.
Metaphorically, God has inscribed this law into our hearts.
This imprinting in the heart only means that human beings
have been given the radical capacity for self-reflection and
thereby can discuss how they should act in particular
situations. It results from conceptualization bound to the
essential inclination of being, of living nature and of
reason which are at work in man.
2. It is Universal.
The universality of natural law refers to the principle of our
humanity itself. All people have the fundamental orientation to seek
what is good and avoid what is destructive. They are inscribed in the
rational nature of the person.
The primary principles of natural law are those which every
person with reason can discover in his life, such as: do good and avoid
evil. They are called self-evident principles derived from his personal
existence. The secondary principles of natural law are those which
are further developed set of forms based on the primary principles,
and hence not as self-evident as the first, like: be concerned for the
transmission and preservation of life, refine and develop the riches of
the material world, cultivate social life, seek truth, practice good and
contemplate beauty. The first principle represents the human nature,
the human essence. The secondary principle refers to man’s relations.
3. It is Immutable.
When Jesus Christ was asked why Moses allowed
divorce, he answered them in reference to the Scripture, “From
the beginning it was not so” (Mt 19:8). Natural law, therefore, is
unchangeable. The natural law that was applicable before is the
same natural law that is applicable today also. The objective
norms of morality are still valid for all people of the present and
to the future, as for those of the past. Though, social and
cultural context of the time may had distorted the primordial
meaning and the role of certain moral norms, the Church still
affirms that underlying so many changes there are some things
which do not change and are ultimately founded upon Christ,
who is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Self-evident inclinations/orientation of man:
1.The inclination to the good;
2.The inclination to self-preservation;
3.The inclination to sexual union and the
rearing of offspring;
4.The inclination to knowledge of searching
for complete story regarding human life;
and
5.The inclination to live in society.
4. It is Indispensable.
No one can set aside the proper
observance of natural law. The Latin maxim
“Bonum est faciendum, malum est vitandum”
(The good must be done and evil avoided) is
always right. This means that natural law is
obligatory. Though it does not impose but holds
us to obedience.
 Basic principles of Natural Law
1.Maintain and promote your bodily life.
2.Maintain and promote social co-existence.
3.Duties of state of life (parental duties)
4.Lawful authority, parents, elders, must be
obeyed.
5.“Golden rule”
6.Leave to everyone and give to everyone
what is his.
7.Contract must be honored.
 Civil Law and Natural Law
According to the Church Social Doctrine, “recognizing
that natural law is the basis for and places limits on positive
law means admitting that it is legitimate to resist authority
should it violate in a serious or repeated manner the
essential principles of natural law. Saint Thomas Aquinas
writes that ‘one is obliged to obey. . . insofar as it is
required by the order of justice’. Natural law is therefore
the basis of the right to resistance.”
 Situation Ethics
Some writers assert that the principle of
double effect (or sometimes called the theory of
proportionalism, consequentialism, or whatever
name it may be) arises from the natural law.
Under the principle of double effect, an
indirectly willed evil effect is not imputed to the
agent and therefore can be permitted.
 Situation Ethics
Permissible if the following conditions are present:
1.The act may not be evil in itself;
2.The evil and the good effect must at least equally directly
proceed from the act; or else the immediate effect must be
good;
3.The intention of the agent must be good;
4.A proportionately grave reason must be had in order to justify
the admission of the indirect, evil effect.
 Situation Ethics
Pope Paul VI, on the other hand, in his encyclical letter Humanae
Vitae (no. 14) said,
“Though it is true that sometimes it is lawful to tolerate a
lesser moral evil in order to avoid a greater evil or in order to
promote a greater good, it is never lawful, even for the gravest
reason, to do evil that good may come of it (Rom 3:8) – in other
words, to intend positively something which intrinsically contradicts
the moral order, and which must therefore be judged unworthy of
man, even though the intention is to protect or promote the welfare
of an individual, of a family or of society in general.”[July 25, 1968. ]
 Situation Ethics
St. Pope John Paul II, in his Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor (1993)
In this view, deliberate consent to certain kinds of behavior declared illicit by
traditional moral theology would not imply an objective moral evil.
In this encyclical letter, the Pope clarifies that such theories are not faithful
to the Church’s teaching when they believe they can justify, as morally good,
deliberate choices of kinds of behavior contrary to the commandments of the divine
and natural law. These theories cannot claim to be grounded in the Catholic moral
tradition. So, the weighing of the goods and evils foreseeable as the consequence of
an action is not an adequate method for determining whether the choice of that
concrete kind of behavior is “according to its species”, or “in itself”, morally good or
bad, licit or illicit. Foreseeable consequences are part of those circumstances of the
act, which, while capable of lessening the gravity of an evil act, nonetheless cannot
alter its moral species.
 Situation Ethics
St. Pope John Paul II, in his Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor (1993)
Pope John Paull II quoted St. Alfonso de Liguori, patron saint of moral
theologians, who said, “It is not enough to do good works, they need to be done
well. For our works to be good and perfect, they must be done for the sole purpose
of pleasing God.” Hence, one must therefore reject the thesis, characteristic of
teleological and proportionalist theories, which holds that it is impossible to qualify
as morally evil according to its species – its ‘object’ – the deliberate choice of certain
kinds of behavior or specific acts apart from a consideration of the intention for
which the choice is made or the totality of the foreseeable consequences of that act
for all persons concerned. In a word, if acts are intrinsically evil, a good intention or
particular circumstances can diminish their evil, but they cannot remove it. They
remain ‘irremediably’ evils acts; per se and in themselves they are not capable of
being ordered to God and to the good of the person.
 Conclusion
What is common among the people in the society today when it
comes to law is the positive law, i.e., the Constitution, social legislation,
and other ordinances. When these laws no longer fit to their basic needs
or their human nature, people will immediately change, if not abolish,
these laws. But it must be known to all that some of these laws are
actually products of natural law for simply because man and woman are
oblivious to their natural obligations, hence, the natural law is put into
writing by the juridical community having the power of taking care for the
common good. However, even if natural law is knowable by human
reason but for us Christians we still need to detect this particular law
through proper formation of our conscience.