Doktrynalne ujęcia relacji prawo naturalne – prawo stanowione od starożytności do czasów oświecenia

Abstract

The article discusses the shaping of the relation between natural and statutory law in philosophical, political, and legal concepts from Antiquity until the eighteenth century. Firstly, the author analyzes the views of sophists, Aristotle, stoics, Saint Augustine of Hippo, and Saint Thomas Aquinas in order to identify the main principles concerning the matter at hand based on their theories. His research permitted him to conclude that during the mentioned period the prevailing conviction was that statutory law (positive law) should not violate natural law (and sometimes simultaneously Gods law) because the latter was perceived as a higher legal order. Statutory law that conflicted with this higher law was usually considered invalid and, as such, did not incorporate an obligation of obedience. It was also usually considered unjust. For Christian thinkers God himself was the creator of the principles of justice; therefore that law which came directly from Him was put at the top of the legal structure. Natural law was seen as mirroring this law of God. In turn, a statutory law was supposed to reflect the rules of natural law. On the other hand, the representatives of the so-called bourgeois school of natural law which are described in the article (H. Grotius, T. Hobbes, S. Pufendorf, and others) did not see the question of the compatibility between statutory and natural law as unequivocally as their predecessors did, even though they too supported the notion that public authorities should, or even must, respect natural law. They did not, however, consider statutory law which violated natural law to be deprived of validity.