Natural Law Seminar

3 credits · Law School

In this course, we will study a body of jurisprudential reflections that constitute a western philosophical tradition known as natural law. Natural law offers a vocabulary for arguing what law ought to be, what rights are inalienable, what duties are always obligatory, and how should the laws written by mortals confront the laws of God. And finally, how should we even divine what God’s laws are? Our focus will be on the “modern” natural law tradition, that equates divine revelation with Reason and takes rights and autonomy to be the fundamental categories for jurisprudence. But we will also explore how this “modern” tradition emerged by contrasting it both with the arguments of antiquity and those of theology. Finally, we will consider how natural law is, and continues to remain a rich resource for answering the fundamental political and economic questions of our day. Enrollment limited. [3]