Schaeffer
Foundational principle; Christian perspective; believes in objective truth worldview; issue is that Christians see things in bits and not as a totality; clash in worldviews
Budziszewski
“foundational moral principles are not only right for all, but at some level known to all”, both to rectitude (actions) and knowledge; this universal common sense is less;
Glover
Ethicists; manmade morality; no common moral ground; moral relativism; only intolerance is judgement
Singer
Utilitarianism; ethicists like Singer and Glover believe that morality has always been an illusion which we are beginning to escape; pleasure is the only moral standard; personhood based on mental capacity (seek pleasure and avoid pain)
Aquinas
NL –> Eternal, Natural, Human, & Divine; use NL to determine Human Law; if HL and NL conflicts, it is unjust –> NO law; HL should only deal w common good; NL (“good is to be pursued, and evil is to be avoided”; self-preservation – desire to know God and live in society); EL + NL + HL–> just law
Bracton
Justice and law intertwined; talk about what “ought” to be not just what “is”; nature of law in its special sense– “a rightful warrant, enjoining what is honest, forbidding the contrary”; 2 forms of justice– 1. God’s (perfect will and result) 2. Man’s (will to award to each his right)
Coke
moral law; agrees w NL; Law of God infused into the heart of man by the finger of God for preservation and protection (immutable, precedes HL, applies to ALL people). However, fused NL and EL together into the LON, contrary to Aquinas.
Blackstone
Nature of Law = law in its comprehensive sense & in its confined sense; forms of law (law of nature, divine law, natural law and human law [law of nations & municipal law])
Rice
constructive and critical functions of natural law; even the Constitution is subject to higher law (supra-constitutional)
King
unjust v. just law; laws out of line w/moral law are not laws (Aquinas); one should engage in civil disobedience “openly, lovingly, with a willingness to accept the penalty.” (demonstrates highest respect for laws)
Rice v. Paulsen on how a judge should apply higher law
P – construe law strictly; make natural law argument expressly; underrule/recuse; resign only if injustice infects entire system
R – look to Constitution/rulings first; strike down under natural law only if conflict b/n precedent and justice is “intolerable” or “endurable”
Langton (Magna Carta)
rule of law; God creates law and law creates King; end to arbitrary royal actions; basic notions of justice; foundations of due process under law
Russell Kirk
common law; agrees w NL; believes “private law” called “common law” secures the private person from arbitrary actions by possessors of power
Kuyper
Calvinism; soveriegnty of God; sin neccesitates gov.; all authorities of gov. on earth originates from God’s sovereignty alone; competing views of popular and state soverignty replace God; agrees w DL and NL;
Stern
Doctrine of God, man, fall, and atonement; agrees w NL; however, thinks CL is the LON
What are the principles of municipal law?
rule is permanent, uniform and universal; civil conduct (rule of moral conduct and of faith); rule prescribed by supreme power in the state
