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class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Murray_Rothbard.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/Murray_Rothbard.jpg/220px-Murray_Rothbard.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="277" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/Murray_Rothbard.jpg/330px-Murray_Rothbard.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/Murray_Rothbard.jpg/440px-Murray_Rothbard.jpg 2x" data-file-width="2373" data-file-height="2991" /></a><figcaption>The natural law is, in essence, a profoundly "<a href="/wiki/Radical" class="mw-redirect" title="Radical">radical</a>" <a href="/wiki/Ethic" class="mw-redirect" title="Ethic">ethic</a>, for it holds the existing status quo, which might grossly violate natural law, up to the unsparing and unyielding light of <a href="/wiki/Reason" title="Reason">reason</a>.  …  At this point, we need only stress that the very <a href="/wiki/Existence" title="Existence">existence</a> of a natural law discoverable by <a href="/wiki/Reason" title="Reason">reason</a> is a potentially powerful threat to the status quo and a standing reproach to the reign of <a href="/wiki/Blindly" class="mw-redirect" title="Blindly">blindly</a> <a href="/wiki/Traditional" class="mw-redirect" title="Traditional">traditional</a> <a href="/wiki/Custom" class="mw-redirect" title="Custom">custom</a> or the <a href="/wiki/Arbitrary" class="mw-redirect" title="Arbitrary">arbitrary</a> <a href="/wiki/Will_(philosophy)" title="Will (philosophy)">will</a> of the <a href="/wiki/State" title="State">State</a> apparatus.<br /><center>~ <a href="/wiki/Murray_N._Rothbard" class="mw-redirect" title="Murray N. Rothbard">Murray N. Rothbard</a></center></figcaption></figure> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:LysanderSpooner.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/21/LysanderSpooner.jpg/220px-LysanderSpooner.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="312" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/LysanderSpooner.jpg 1.5x" data-file-width="271" data-file-height="384" /></a><figcaption>But if <a href="/wiki/Justice" title="Justice">justice</a> be a <a href="/wiki/Natural" class="mw-redirect" title="Natural">natural</a> <a href="/wiki/Principle" class="mw-redirect" title="Principle">principle</a>, then it is necessarily an immutable one; and can no more be changed…than can the <a href="/wiki/Law" title="Law">law</a> of <a href="/wiki/Gravitation" class="mw-redirect" title="Gravitation">gravitation</a>, the laws of <a href="/wiki/Light" title="Light">light</a>, the principles of <a href="/wiki/Mathematics" title="Mathematics">mathematics</a>, or any other natural law or principle whatever; and all attempts or assumptions, on the part of any <a href="/wiki/Person" class="mw-redirect" title="Person">man</a> or body of men—whether calling themselves <a href="/wiki/Governments" class="mw-redirect" title="Governments">governments</a>, or by any other name—to set up their own commands, <a href="/wiki/Will_(philosophy)" title="Will (philosophy)">wills</a>, <a href="/wiki/Pleasure" title="Pleasure">pleasure</a>, or <a href="/wiki/Discretion" title="Discretion">discretion</a>, in the place of justice, as a rule of conduct for any <a href="/wiki/Human_being" class="mw-redirect" title="Human being">human being</a>, are as much an <a href="/wiki/Absurdity" title="Absurdity">absurdity</a>, an usurpation, and a <a href="/wiki/Tyranny" title="Tyranny">tyranny</a>, as would be their attempts to set up their own commands, wills, pleasure, or discretion in the place of any and all the <a href="/wiki/Physical" class="mw-redirect" title="Physical">physical</a>, <a href="/wiki/Mental" class="mw-redirect" title="Mental">mental</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Moral" class="mw-redirect" title="Moral">moral</a> laws of the <a href="/wiki/Universe" title="Universe">universe</a>.<br /><center>~ <a href="/wiki/Lysander_Spooner" title="Lysander Spooner">Lysander Spooner</a></center></figcaption></figure> <p><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_law" class="extiw" title="w:Natural law">Natural law</a></b> is a rule or body of rules of conduct inherent in human nature, discoverable by reason, and essential to or binding upon human society. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Quotes">Quotes</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Natural_law&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Quotes"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li>It is true that when medieval <a href="/wiki/Writers" class="mw-redirect" title="Writers">writers</a> spoke of natural law as being discoverable by <a href="/wiki/Reason" title="Reason">reason</a>, they meant that the best <a href="/wiki/Human" title="Human">human</a> reasoning could <a href="/w/index.php?title=Discover&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Discover (page does not exist)">discover</a> it, and not, of course, that the results to which any and every individual's reasoning led him was natural law. <ul><li>J. L. Brierly, <i>The Law of Nations</i>, pp. 20-21 (5th ed. 1955).</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>Whether something falls within the domain of ‘‘<a href="/wiki/Law" title="Law">law</a>’’ is, for a natural lawyer, at least partially or nominally determined by reference to an extra-legal standard or norm. <ul><li><cite style="font-style:normal">Douglas E. Edlin (Jul., 2006). "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/3877071">Judicial Review without a Constitution</a>". <i>Polity</i> <b>38</b>: 345-368.</cite></li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>It is not an accident that men like <a href="/wiki/Machiavelli" class="mw-redirect" title="Machiavelli">Machiavelli</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Hobbes" class="mw-redirect" title="Hobbes">Hobbes</a>, whose aim is to remove all restraints from the actions of rulers except those of expediency, should be agreed in denying all meaning to the idea of natural law. On the other hand for <a href="/wiki/Grotius" class="mw-redirect" title="Grotius">Grotius</a> with his theory of inter-state morality, for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_Plessis_Mornay" class="extiw" title="w:Du Plessis Mornay">Du Plessis Mornay</a> with his claim that the governor must have regard to the good of the governed, the notion of natural law which makes promises binding anterior to positive rules, is essential and obligatory. <ul><li><cite style="font-style:normal" class="book" id="CITEREFJohn_Neville_Figgis1907"><a href="/wiki/John_Neville_Figgis" title="John Neville Figgis">John Neville Figgis</a> (1907). <i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.com/books?id=JFZJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA8">Studies of Political Thought from Gershon to Grotius, 1414–1625</a></i>. Cambridge: at the University Press. p. 8.</cite><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Studies+of+Political+Thought+from+Gershon+to+Grotius%2C+1414%E2%80%931625&rft.aulast=%5B%5BJohn+Neville+Figgis%5D%5D&rft.au=%5B%5BJohn+Neville+Figgis%5D%5D&rft.date=1907&rft.pages=p.%26nbsp%3B8&rft.pub=Cambridge%3A+at+the+University+Press&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DJFZJAAAAIAAJ%26pg%3DPA8&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Natural_law"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>When most people speak of natural law, what they have in <a href="/wiki/Mind" title="Mind">mind</a> is the contention that <a href="/wiki/Morality" title="Morality">morality</a> can be derived from human <a href="/wiki/Nature" title="Nature">nature</a>.  If <a href="/wiki/Human_beings" class="mw-redirect" title="Human beings">human beings</a> are <a href="/wiki/Rational" class="mw-redirect" title="Rational">rational</a> <a href="/wiki/Animals" title="Animals">animals</a> of such-and-such a sort, then the moral <a href="/wiki/Virtues" class="mw-redirect" title="Virtues">virtues</a> are…(filling in the blanks is the <a href="/wiki/Difficult" class="mw-redirect" title="Difficult">difficult</a> part). <ul><li><cite style="font-style:normal" class="" id="CITEREFDavid_Gordon"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gordon_(philosopher)" class="extiw" title="w:David Gordon (philosopher)">David Gordon</a>, <i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://mises.org/misesreview_detail.aspx?control=129">Review of In Defense of Natural Law by Robert George</a></i>, Ludwig von Mises Institute</cite><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Review+of+In+Defense+of+Natural+Law+by+Robert+George&rft.aulast=%5B%5Bw%3ADavid+Gordon+%28philosopher%29%7CDavid+Gordon%5D%5D&rft.au=%5B%5Bw%3ADavid+Gordon+%28philosopher%29%7CDavid+Gordon%5D%5D&rft.pub=Ludwig+von+Mises+Institute&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fmises.org%2Fmisesreview_detail.aspx%3Fcontrol%3D129&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Natural_law"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span>.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>It offends <a href="/wiki/Reason" title="Reason">reason</a> to believe that a well-established natural law can admit of <a href="/wiki/Exceptions" class="mw-redirect" title="Exceptions">exceptions</a>.  A natural law must hold everywhere and always, or be invalid.  I cannot believe, for example, that the universal law of <a href="/wiki/Gravitation" class="mw-redirect" title="Gravitation">gravitation</a>, which governs the physical world, is ever suspended in any instance or at any point of the <a href="/wiki/Universe" title="Universe">universe</a>.  Now I consider <a href="/wiki/Economic" class="mw-redirect" title="Economic">economic</a> <a href="/wiki/Laws" class="mw-redirect" title="Laws">laws</a> comparable to natural laws, and I have just as much faith in the principle of the <a href="/wiki/Division_of_labor" title="Division of labor">division of labor</a> as I have in the universal law of gravitation.  I believe that while these principles can be <i>disturbed</i>, they admit of no exceptions. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Gustave_de_Molinari" title="Gustave de Molinari">Gustave de Molinari</a>, <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Production_of_Security/2" class="extiw" title="s:The Production of Security/2">§II</a> of <i><a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Production_of_Security" class="extiw" title="s:The Production of Security">The Production of Security</a></i>, tr. J. Huston McCulloch (Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2009; orig. 1849), <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:The_Production_of_Security.pdf/26" class="extiw" title="s:Page:The Production of Security.pdf/26">p. 25</a>.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b>The natural law is, in essence, a profoundly "<a href="/wiki/Radical" class="mw-redirect" title="Radical">radical</a>" <a href="/wiki/Ethic" class="mw-redirect" title="Ethic">ethic</a>, for it holds the existing <a href="/wiki/Status_quo" title="Status quo">status quo</a>, which might grossly violate natural law, up to the unsparing and unyielding light of <a href="/wiki/Reason" title="Reason">reason</a>.</b>  In the realm of <a href="/wiki/Politics" title="Politics">politics</a> or <a href="/wiki/State" title="State">State</a> <a href="/wiki/Action" title="Action">action</a>, the natural law presents <a href="/wiki/People" class="mw-redirect" title="People">man</a> with a set of <a href="/wiki/Norms" class="mw-redirect" title="Norms">norms</a> which may well be radically critical of existing positive <a href="/wiki/Law" title="Law">law</a> imposed by the State.  At this point, we need only stress that the very <a href="/wiki/Existence" title="Existence">existence</a> of a natural law <a href="/w/index.php?title=Discoverable&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Discoverable (page does not exist)">discoverable</a> by <a href="/wiki/Reason" title="Reason">reason</a> is a potentially powerful threat to the status quo and a standing reproach to the reign of <a href="/wiki/Blindly" class="mw-redirect" title="Blindly">blindly</a> <a href="/wiki/Traditional" class="mw-redirect" title="Traditional">traditional</a> <a href="/wiki/Custom" class="mw-redirect" title="Custom">custom</a> or the <a href="/wiki/Arbitrary" class="mw-redirect" title="Arbitrary">arbitrary</a> <a href="/wiki/Will_(philosophy)" title="Will (philosophy)">will</a> of the <a href="/wiki/State" title="State">State</a> apparatus. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Murray_N._Rothbard" class="mw-redirect" title="Murray N. Rothbard">Murray N. Rothbard</a>, "Natural Law versus Positive Law," ch. 3 in "Introduction: Natural Law," Pt. I of <i><a href="/wiki/The_Ethics_of_Liberty" class="mw-redirect" title="The Ethics of Liberty">The Ethics of Liberty</a></i> (New York: New York University Press, 1998; orig. 1982), p. 17.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>No <a href="/w/index.php?title=Objection&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Objection (page does not exist)">objection</a> can be made to these <a href="/wiki/Voluntary" class="mw-redirect" title="Voluntary">voluntary</a> <a href="/wiki/Associations" class="mw-redirect" title="Associations">associations</a> upon the ground that they would lack that <a href="/wiki/Knowledge" title="Knowledge">knowledge</a> of <a href="/wiki/Justice" title="Justice">justice</a>, as a <a href="/wiki/Science" title="Science">science</a>, which would be necessary to enable them to maintain justice, and themselves avoid doing <a href="/wiki/Injustice" title="Injustice">injustice</a>.  <a href="/wiki/Honesty" title="Honesty">Honesty</a>, justice, natural law, is usually a very plain and simple matter, easily <a href="/wiki/Understood" class="mw-redirect" title="Understood">understood</a> by common <a href="/wiki/Minds" class="mw-redirect" title="Minds">minds</a>.  Those who desire to know what it is, in any particular case, seldom have to go far to find it. <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Lysander_Spooner" title="Lysander Spooner">Lysander Spooner</a>, §IV of "<a href="/wiki/Lysander_Spooner#Chapter_I._The_Science_of_Justice." title="Lysander Spooner">The Science of Justice</a>," Chap. I of <i><a href="/wiki/Natural_Law;_or_The_Science_of_Justice" class="mw-redirect" title="Natural Law; or The Science of Justice">Natural Law; or The Science of Justice</a></i> (1882), p. 8.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Children" title="Children">Children</a> <a href="/wiki/Learn" class="mw-redirect" title="Learn">learn</a> the fundamental <a href="/wiki/Principles" title="Principles">principles</a> of natural law at a very early age.  Thus they very early <a href="/wiki/Understand" class="mw-redirect" title="Understand">understand</a> that one child must not, without <a href="/wiki/Just" class="mw-redirect" title="Just">just</a> cause, strike or otherwise <a href="/wiki/Hurt" class="mw-redirect" title="Hurt">hurt</a>, another; that one child must not assume any arbitrary <a href="/wiki/Control" title="Control">control</a> or <a href="/wiki/Domination" title="Domination">domination</a> over another; that one child must not, either by <a href="/wiki/Force" title="Force">force</a>, <a href="/wiki/Deceit" class="mw-redirect" title="Deceit">deceit</a>, or <a href="/wiki/Stealth" class="mw-redirect" title="Stealth">stealth</a>, obtain possession of anything that <a href="/wiki/Property" title="Property">belongs</a> to another; that if one child commits any of these wrongs against another, it is not only the <a href="/wiki/Right" class="mw-redirect" title="Right">right</a> of the injured child to resist, and, if need be, <a href="/wiki/Punish" class="mw-redirect" title="Punish">punish</a> the wrongdoer, and compel him to make <a href="/w/index.php?title=Reparation&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Reparation (page does not exist)">reparation</a>, but that it is also the right, and the <a href="/wiki/Moral" class="mw-redirect" title="Moral">moral</a> <a href="/wiki/Duty" title="Duty">duty</a>, of all other children, and all other <a href="/wiki/Persons" class="mw-redirect" title="Persons">persons</a>, to assist the <a href="/wiki/Injured" class="mw-redirect" title="Injured">injured</a> party in <a href="/wiki/Defending" class="mw-redirect" title="Defending">defending</a> his rights, and redressing his wrongs.  These are fundamental principles of natural law, which govern the most important transactions of man with man.  Yet children learn them earlier than they learn that three and three are six, or five and five ten.  Their childish plays, even, could not be carried on without a constant regard to them; and it is equally <a href="/wiki/Impossible" class="mw-redirect" title="Impossible">impossible</a> for persons of any age to <a href="/wiki/Live" class="mw-redirect" title="Live">live</a> together in <a href="/wiki/Peace" title="Peace">peace</a> on any other conditions.<p>It would be no extravagance to say that, in most cases, if not in all, mankind at large, young and old, learn this natural law long before they have learned the <a href="/wiki/Meanings" class="mw-redirect" title="Meanings">meanings</a> of the <a href="/wiki/Words" title="Words">words</a> by which we describe it.  In <a href="/wiki/Truth" title="Truth">truth</a>, it would be impossible to make them understand the real meanings of the words, if they did not understand the <a href="/wiki/Nature" title="Nature">nature</a> of the thing itself.  To make them understand the meanings of the words <a href="/wiki/Justice" title="Justice">justice</a> and <a href="/wiki/Injustice" title="Injustice">injustice</a> before knowing the nature of the things themselves, would be as impossible as it would be to make them understand the meanings of the words <a href="/wiki/Heat" class="mw-redirect" title="Heat">heat</a> and <a href="/wiki/Cold" title="Cold">cold</a>, <a href="/w/index.php?title=Wet&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Wet (page does not exist)">wet</a> and <a href="/w/index.php?title=Dry&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Dry (page does not exist)">dry</a>, <a href="/wiki/Light" title="Light">light</a> and <a href="/wiki/Darkness" title="Darkness">darkness</a>, <a href="/wiki/White" class="mw-disambig" title="White">white</a> and <a href="/wiki/Black" title="Black">black</a>, <a href="/wiki/One" class="mw-redirect" title="One">one</a> and <a href="/w/index.php?title=Two&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Two (page does not exist)">two</a>, before knowing the nature of the things themselves.  Men necessarily must know <a href="/wiki/Sentiments" class="mw-redirect" title="Sentiments">sentiments</a> and <a href="/wiki/Ideas" title="Ideas">ideas</a>, no less than material things, before they can know the meanings of the words by which we describe them. </p><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Lysander_Spooner" title="Lysander Spooner">Lysander Spooner</a>, §IV of "<a href="/wiki/Lysander_Spooner#Chapter_I._The_Science_of_Justice." title="Lysander Spooner">The Science of Justice</a>," Chap. I of <i><a href="/wiki/Natural_Law;_or_The_Science_of_Justice" class="mw-redirect" title="Natural Law; or The Science of Justice">Natural Law; or The Science of Justice</a></i> (1882), pp. 9–10.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><b>But if <a href="/wiki/Justice" title="Justice">justice</a> be a <a href="/wiki/Natural" class="mw-redirect" title="Natural">natural</a> <a href="/wiki/Principle" class="mw-redirect" title="Principle">principle</a>, then it is necessarily an immutable one; and can no more be changed</b>—by any <a href="/wiki/Power" title="Power">power</a> inferior to <a href="/wiki/God" title="God">that which established it</a>—<b>than can the <a href="/wiki/Law" title="Law">law</a> of <a href="/wiki/Gravitation" class="mw-redirect" title="Gravitation">gravitation</a>, the laws of <a href="/wiki/Light" title="Light">light</a>, the principles of <a href="/wiki/Mathematics" title="Mathematics">mathematics</a>, or any other natural law or principle whatever; and all attempts or assumptions, on the part of any <a href="/wiki/Person" class="mw-redirect" title="Person">man</a> or body of men—whether calling themselves <a href="/wiki/Governments" class="mw-redirect" title="Governments">governments</a>, or by any other name—to set up their own <a href="/wiki/Commands" class="mw-redirect" title="Commands">commands</a>, <a href="/wiki/Will_(philosophy)" title="Will (philosophy)">wills</a>, <a href="/wiki/Pleasure" title="Pleasure">pleasure</a>, or <a href="/wiki/Discretion" title="Discretion">discretion</a>, in the place of justice, as a rule of conduct for any <a href="/wiki/Human_being" class="mw-redirect" title="Human being">human being</a>, are as much an <a href="/wiki/Absurdity" title="Absurdity">absurdity</a>, an <a href="/w/index.php?title=Usurpation&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Usurpation (page does not exist)">usurpation</a>, and a <a href="/wiki/Tyranny" title="Tyranny">tyranny</a>, as would be their attempts to set up their own commands, wills, pleasure, or discretion in the place of any and all the <a href="/wiki/Physical" class="mw-redirect" title="Physical">physical</a>, <a href="/wiki/Mental" class="mw-redirect" title="Mental">mental</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Moral" class="mw-redirect" title="Moral">moral</a> laws of the <a href="/wiki/Universe" title="Universe">universe</a>.</b> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Lysander_Spooner" title="Lysander Spooner">Lysander Spooner</a>, §I of "<a href="/wiki/Lysander_Spooner#Chapter_II._The_Science_of_Justice_(Continued)" title="Lysander Spooner">The Science of Justice (Continued)</a>," Chap. II of <i><a href="/wiki/Natural_Law;_or_The_Science_of_Justice" class="mw-redirect" title="Natural Law; or The Science of Justice">Natural Law; or The Science of Justice</a></i> (1882), pp. 11–12.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>If there be such a <a href="/wiki/Principle" class="mw-redirect" title="Principle">principle</a> as <a href="/wiki/Justice" title="Justice">justice</a>, or natural law, it is the principle, or <a href="/wiki/Law" title="Law">law</a>, that tells us what <a href="/wiki/Rights" title="Rights">rights</a> were given to every <a href="/wiki/Human_being" class="mw-redirect" title="Human being">human being</a> at his <a href="/wiki/Birth" title="Birth">birth</a>; what rights are, therefore, inherent in him as a human being, necessarily remain with him during <a href="/wiki/Life" title="Life">life</a>; and, however capable of being trampled upon, are incapable of being blotted out, extinguished, annihilated, or separated or eliminated from his <a href="/wiki/Nature" title="Nature">nature</a> as a human being, or deprived of their inherent <a href="/wiki/Authority" title="Authority">authority</a> or <a href="/wiki/Obligation" title="Obligation">obligation</a>.<p>On the other hand, if there be no such principle as justice, or natural law, then every human being came into the world utterly destitute of rights; and coming into the world destitute of rights, he must necessarily <a href="/wiki/Forever" class="mw-redirect" title="Forever">forever</a> remain so.  For if no one brings any rights with him into the world, clearly no one can ever have any rights of his own, or give any to another.  And the <a href="/wiki/Consequence" class="mw-redirect" title="Consequence">consequence</a> would be that mankind could never have any rights; and for them to talk of any such things as their rights, would be to talk of things that never had, never will have, and never can have any <a href="/wiki/Existence" title="Existence">existence</a>. </p><ul><li><a href="/wiki/Lysander_Spooner" title="Lysander Spooner">Lysander Spooner</a>, §IV of "<a href="/wiki/Lysander_Spooner#Chapter_II._The_Science_of_Justice_(Continued)" title="Lysander Spooner">The Science of Justice (Continued)</a>," Chap. II of <i><a href="/wiki/Natural_Law;_or_The_Science_of_Justice" class="mw-redirect" title="Natural Law; or The Science of Justice">Natural Law; or The Science of Justice</a></i> (1882), pp. 12–13.</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>The essence of right and wrong does not depend upon words and clauses inserted in a code or a statute-book, much less upon the conclusions and explications of lawyers; but upon reason and the nature of things, antecedent to all laws. <ul><li>Cato’s Letter 42, 1721</li></ul></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Natural_law&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Natural_rights" title="Natural rights">Natural rights</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Natural_law&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="noprint" style="clear: right; border: solid #aaa 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; font-size: 90%; background: #f9f9f9; width: 250px; padding: 4px; spacing: 0px; text-align: left; float: right;"> <div style="float: left;"><figure class="mw-halign-none" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg" class="mw-file-description" title="Wikipedia"><img alt="Wikipedia" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/50px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png" decoding="async" width="50" height="46" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/75px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/100px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="103" data-file-height="94" /></a><figcaption>Wikipedia</figcaption></figure></div> <div style="margin-left: 60px;"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia" title="Wikipedia">Wikipedia</a> has an article about: <div style="margin-left: 10px;"><i><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_law" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Natural law">Natural law</a></b></i></div> </div> </div> <table class="wikitable mw-collapsible"> <tbody><tr> <td style="background:#E4F2E4" align="center" colspan="3"><b>Social and political philosophy</b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background:#E4F2E4">Ideologies</td> <td><a href="/wiki/Anarchism" title="Anarchism">Anarchism</a> ⦿ <i><a href="/wiki/Aristocracy" title="Aristocracy">Aristocratic Radicalism</a></i><small> (<a href="/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche" title="Friedrich Nietzsche">Nietzsche</a> • <a href="/wiki/Georg_Brandes" title="Georg Brandes">Brandes</a>...)</small> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Autarchism" class="mw-redirect" title="Autarchism">Autarchism</a> ⦿ <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba%27athism" class="extiw" title="w:Ba'athism">Ba'athism</a> <small>(• <a href="/wiki/Michel_Aflaq" title="Michel Aflaq">Aflaq</a> • <a href="/wiki/Hafez_al-Assad" title="Hafez al-Assad">al-Assad</a> • <a href="/wiki/Saddam_Hussein" title="Saddam Hussein">Hussein</a>)</small> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Communism" title="Communism">Communism</a> ⦿ (Neo-)<a href="/wiki/Confucianism" class="mw-redirect" title="Confucianism">Confucianism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Conservatism" title="Conservatism">Conservatism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Constitutions" title="Constitutions">Constitutionalism</a> ⦿ <i><a href="/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment" class="mw-redirect" title="Dark Enlightenment">Dark Enlightenment</a></i> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Environmentalism" title="Environmentalism">Environmentalism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Fascism" title="Fascism">Fascism</a> <small>(• <i><a href="/wiki/Islamofascism" title="Islamofascism">Islamo-</a></i> • <a href="/wiki/Pentti_Linkola" title="Pentti Linkola">Eco-</a> • <a href="/wiki/Francoism" class="mw-redirect" title="Francoism">Francoism</a>...)</small> <b>vs.</b> <a href="/wiki/Nazism" title="Nazism">Nazism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Feminism" title="Feminism">Feminism</a> <small>(• <a href="/wiki/Anarcha-feminism" title="Anarcha-feminism">Anarcha-</a> • <a href="/wiki/Radical_feminism" title="Radical feminism">Radical</a> • <a href="/wiki/Gender-critical_feminism" title="Gender-critical feminism">Gender-critical</a> • <a href="/wiki/Second-wave_feminism" title="Second-wave feminism">Second-wave</a>...)</small> ⦿ <i><a href="/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin" title="Curtis Yarvin">Formalism</a></i><b>/</b><a href="/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin" title="Curtis Yarvin">(Neo-)</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cameralism" class="extiw" title="w:cameralism">cameralism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse" title="Herbert Marcuse">Freudo-Marxism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Muammar_Gaddafi" title="Muammar Gaddafi">Gaddafism</a><b>/</b><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_International_Theory" class="extiw" title="w:Third International Theory">Third International Theory</a></i> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Han_Fei" title="Han Fei">Legalism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Leninism" class="mw-redirect" title="Leninism">Leninism</a><b>/</b><i><a href="/wiki/Vanguardism" class="mw-redirect" title="Vanguardism">Vanguardism</a></i> ⦿ <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juche" class="extiw" title="w:Juche">Juche</a> <small>(• <a href="/wiki/Kim_Il-sung" title="Kim Il-sung">Kim Il-sung</a> • <a href="/wiki/Kim_Jong-il" title="Kim Jong-il">Kim Jong Il</a> • <a href="/wiki/Kim_Jong-un" title="Kim Jong-un">Kim Jong Un</a>...)</small> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Liberalism" title="Liberalism">Liberalism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Libertarianism" title="Libertarianism">Libertarianism</a><b>/</b><a href="/wiki/Laissez-faire" title="Laissez-faire">Laissez-faire</a> <a href="/wiki/Capitalism" title="Capitalism">Capitalism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Maoism" class="mw-redirect" title="Maoism">Maoism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Marxism" title="Marxism">Marxism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Mozi" title="Mozi">Mohism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Republicanism" class="mw-redirect" title="Republicanism">Republicanism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Social_democracy" title="Social democracy">Social democracy</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Socialism" title="Socialism">Socialism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Stalinism" title="Stalinism">Stalinism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Leo_Strauss" title="Leo Strauss">Straussianism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Anarcho-syndicalism" title="Anarcho-syndicalism">Syndicalism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Xi_Jinping" title="Xi Jinping">Xi Jinping thought</a> ⦿ <i><a href="/wiki/New_Monasticism" title="New Monasticism">New Monasticism</a></i> <small>(• <a href="/wiki/Alasdair_MacIntyre" title="Alasdair MacIntyre">MacIntyre</a> • <a href="/wiki/Rod_Dreher" title="Rod Dreher">Dreher</a>...)</small> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background:#E4F2E4">Modalities</td> <td><a href="/wiki/Absolutism" title="Absolutism">Absolutism</a> <b>vs.</b> <a href="/wiki/Social_constructionism" title="Social constructionism">Social constructionism</a><b>/</b><a href="/wiki/Relativism" title="Relativism">Relativism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Autarky" title="Autarky">Autarky</a><b>/</b><a href="/wiki/Autonomy" title="Autonomy">Autonomy</a> <b>vs.</b> <a href="/wiki/Heteronomy" title="Heteronomy">Heteronomy</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Authoritarianism" title="Authoritarianism">Authoritarianism</a><b>/</b><a href="/wiki/Totalitarianism" title="Totalitarianism">Totalitarianism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Colonialism" title="Colonialism">Colonialism</a> <b>vs.</b> <a href="/wiki/Imperialism" title="Imperialism">Imperialism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Communitarianism" title="Communitarianism">Communitarianism</a> <b>vs.</b> <a href="/wiki/Liberalism" title="Liberalism">Liberalism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Elitism" title="Elitism">Elitism</a> <b>vs.</b> <a href="/wiki/Populism" title="Populism">Populism</a><b>/</b><a href="/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority" title="Tyranny of the majority">Majoritarianism</a><b>/</b><a href="/wiki/Egalitarianism" title="Egalitarianism">Egalitarianism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Individualism" title="Individualism">Individualism</a> <b>vs.</b> <a href="/wiki/Collectivism" title="Collectivism">Collectivism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Nationalism" title="Nationalism">Nationalism</a> <b>vs.</b> <a href="/wiki/Cosmopolitanism" title="Cosmopolitanism">Cosmopolitanism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Particularism" class="mw-redirect" title="Particularism">Particularism</a> <b>vs.</b> <a href="/wiki/Universalism" title="Universalism">Universalism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Modernism" title="Modernism">Modernism</a><b>/</b><a href="/wiki/Progressivism" title="Progressivism">Progressivism</a> <b>vs.</b> <a href="/wiki/Postmodernism" title="Postmodernism">Postmodernism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Reactionism" class="mw-redirect" title="Reactionism">Reactionism</a><b>/</b><a href="/wiki/Traditionalism" class="mw-redirect" title="Traditionalism">Traditionalism</a> <b>vs.</b> <a href="/wiki/Futurism" title="Futurism">Futurism</a><b>/</b><a href="/wiki/Transhumanism" title="Transhumanism">Transhumanism</a> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background:#E4F2E4">Concepts</td> <td><a href="/wiki/Alienation" title="Alienation">Alienation</a> ⦿ <i><a href="/wiki/Samuel_T._Francis" title="Samuel T. Francis">Anarcho-tyranny</a></i> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/%C3%89mile_Durkheim" title="Émile Durkheim">Anomie</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Authority" title="Authority">Authority</a> ⦿ <i><a href="/wiki/Robert_Conquest" title="Robert Conquest">Conquest's Laws of Politics</a></i> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Duty" title="Duty">Duty</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Eugenics" title="Eugenics">Eugenics</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Elite" title="Elite">Elite</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Elite_theory" title="Elite theory">Elite theory</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Emancipation" title="Emancipation">Emancipation</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Equality" title="Equality">Equality</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Freedom" title="Freedom">Freedom</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Government" title="Government">Government</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Hegemony" title="Hegemony">Hegemony</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Hierarchy" title="Hierarchy">Hierarchy</a> ⦿ <i><a href="/wiki/Robert_Michels" title="Robert Michels">Iron law of oligarchy</a></i> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Justice" title="Justice">Justice</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Law" title="Law">Law</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Monopoly" title="Monopoly">Monopoly</a> ⦿ <a class="mw-selflink selflink">Natural law</a> ⦿ <i><a href="/wiki/Noblesse_oblige" title="Noblesse oblige">Noblesse oblige</a></i> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Norms" class="mw-redirect" title="Norms">Norms</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Obedience" title="Obedience">Obedience</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Peace" title="Peace">Peace</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Pluralism" title="Pluralism">Pluralism</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Robert_A._Dahl" title="Robert A. Dahl"><i>Polyarchy</i></a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Power" title="Power">Power</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Propaganda" title="Propaganda">Propaganda</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Property" title="Property">Property</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Revolt" title="Revolt">Revolt</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Rebellion" title="Rebellion">Rebellion</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Revolution" title="Revolution">Revolution</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Rights" title="Rights">Rights</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Ruling_class" title="Ruling class">Ruling class</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Social_contract" title="Social contract">Social contract</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Social_inequality" title="Social inequality">Social inequality</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Society" title="Society">Society</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/State" title="State">State</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Tocqueville_effect" title="Tocqueville effect">Tocqueville effect</a> ⦿ <i><a href="/wiki/Jacob_Talmon" title="Jacob Talmon">Totalitarian democracy</a></i> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/War" title="War">War</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Utopia" title="Utopia">Utopia</a> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background:#E4F2E4">Government</td> <td><a href="/wiki/Aristocracy" title="Aristocracy">Aristocracy</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Autocracy" class="mw-redirect" title="Autocracy">Autocracy</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Bureaucracy" title="Bureaucracy">Bureaucracy</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Dictatorship" title="Dictatorship">Dictatorship</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Democracy" title="Democracy">Democracy</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Meritocracy" title="Meritocracy">Meritocracy</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Monarchy" title="Monarchy">Monarchy</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Ochlocracy" title="Ochlocracy">Ochlocracy</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Oligarchy" title="Oligarchy">Oligarchy</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Plutocracy" title="Plutocracy">Plutocracy</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Technocracy" title="Technocracy">Technocracy</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Theocracy" title="Theocracy">Theocracy</a> ⦿ <a href="/wiki/Tyranny" title="Tyranny">Tyranny</a> </td></tr></tbody></table>    </div><noscript><img src="https://login.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?type=1x1" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none; position: absolute;"></noscript> <div class="printfooter" data-nosnippet="">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Natural_law&oldid=3439153">https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Natural_law&oldid=3439153</a>"</div></div> <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="/wiki/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Category</a>: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Law" title="Category:Law">Law</a></li></ul></div></div> </div> </main> </div> <div class="mw-footer-container"> <footer id="footer" class="mw-footer" > <ul id="footer-info"> <li id="footer-info-lastmod"> This page was last edited on 6 January 2024, at 22:14.</li> <li id="footer-info-copyright">Text is available under the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License</a>; additional terms may apply. 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