aquinas definition of law
As Aquinas understands it, the natural law is a fundamental principle that is weaved into the fabric of our nature. As such, it illuminates and gives us a desire for those goods that facilitate the kind of flourishing proper to human beings (ST IaIIae 94.3). This point deserves further discussion. The concept of law envisioned by St. Thomas radically departs from the Critical Legal Studies school which claims that law is indeterminate, and ultimately that law is politics and nothing else. OF THE ESSENCE OF LAW (FOUR ARTICLES). We have now to consider the extrinsic principles of acts. Now the extrinsic principle inclining to evil is the devil, of whose temptations we have spoken in the FP, Question [114]. On Aquinas’s view, a law is “a rule or measure of human acts, whereby a person is induced to act or is restrained from acting” (ST IaIIae 90.1). Elsewhere, he describes a law as a “dictate of practical reason emanating from a ruler” (ST IaIIae 91.1). Thomas Aquinas - (Roman Catholic Church) Italian theologian and Doctor of the Church who is remembered for his attempt to reconcile faith and reason in a comprehensive theology; presented philosophical proofs of the existence of God (1225-1274). Natural law is a philosophy that certain rights or values are inherent by virtue of human nature, and universally cognizable through human reason. Historically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze both social and personal human nature to deduce binding rules of moral behavior. The law of nature, being determined by nature, is universal. Although natural law is often conflated with common law, the two are distinct. Common law is not based on inherent rights, but is the legal tradition whereby certain rights or values are legally recognized by virtue of already having judicial recognition or articulation. Similarly, the German jurisprudential scholar Rudolf von Jhering, who, in his Der Zweck im Recht, saw law as merely a means to an end without substantive component other than the convenience of the society works outside St. Thomas's frame of reference. Now we will address the law’s origin. According to Aquinas, every law is ultimately derived from what he calls the eternal law (ST IaIIae 93.3). The “eternal law” refers to God’s providential ordering of all created things to their proper end. Thomas Aquinas: Moral Philosophy. The moral philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) involves a merger of at least two apparently disparate traditions: Aristotelian eudaimonism and Christian theology. Perhaps the most significant emphasis of this definition is that law is based upon reason, and not upon custom, will, politics, or power. Therefore, St. Thomas is clearly outside the voluntaristic camp, those who, like the medieval Ockham, sought the essence of law in God's will as distinguished from His reason.
It is a rule or measure of human acts, whereby a person is induced to act or is restrained from acting.