Natural Law and America's Legal Term Paper

It is not up to man to determine who lives or dies, it is God's choice and to kill is to try and play God.

The basics of natural law are buried in what is called a conscious. What is moral and pure and good is acceptable as natural law.

The American justice system uses natural law as the blueprint for many of its societal laws. Knowing that stealing is wrong because it is morally distasteful is what drove the law makers to pass laws about stealing and made it a crime.

If one physically harms another, the social conscious of mankind will give rise to an outcry about the moral injustice of the act, which is what provided the background to the forefathers of the country to include such elements in the constitution and the later laws that protect that constitution.

The basics of natural law also include the following principles:

is not made by human beings;

is based on the structure of reality itself;

is the same for all human beings and at all times;

is an unchanging rule or pattern which is there for human beings to discover;

is the naturally knowable moral law;

is a means by which human beings can rationally guide themselves to their good (Dolhenty, 2004)."

When it comes to discussions about natural laws it is important to understand the difference between natural law and societal law. There are some laws that are purely societal according to the people who argue the point.

There are many laws on the books that some people do not believe should be crimes. Few would argue about the pain inflicted on another person but the laws in which they do not believe anyone is hurt they do not support as being criminal acts.

The question of legalizing marijuana would be one in which the natural law theories would be used to argue that it should not be illegal.One of those could be argued for the case of prostitution. There are people who believe that prostitution is a victimless crime and as such should not be made against the law.

The idea of natural law however, believes that anything that harms the conscious or society is something that should be deemed wrong, therefore natural law would be applicable in the case of prostitution for those who believe that prostitution is wrong, but for those who believe it is victimless they would argue that the natural law theory does not apply.

In the American legal system the foundation of natural law is the backbone of all that is included in the system. The constitution mentions rights and those rights are rights that are provided simply by being a human being with no other criteria needed. It is what many of the nation's current laws are base in. One has the right to live free of fear, which means that oppression, kidnap, assault, rape, battery and other acts of aggression are against the natural law theories.

CONCLUSION

When one hears news clips about higher courts determining the fate of a case by holding it against the constitution one naturally believes that the constitution is the basic foundation of measurement in such events. The truth is however, that one can even dig more deeply than the constitution and one will see that the true tenet of the American legal system is based in natural law.

References

Bridges, Linda (1996) Rule of non-law.(legal system)

National Review;

Dolhenty, Jonathan Ph.D. An Overview of Natural Law Theory http://radicalacademy.com/philnaturallaw.htm

Green, Steven (2005) Legal realism as theory of law.

William and Mary Law Review;

Horowitz, Mirah (2000) Kids who kill: a critique of how the American legal system deals with juveniles who commit homicide. Law and Contemporary Problems

Natural Law Theorists (accessed 12-06-06)

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/natural-law-ethics/#1.....