Natural rights are rights granted to all people by nature or God that cannot be denied or restricted by any government or individual. Natural rights are often said to be granted to people by “natural law.” Legal rights are rights granted by governments or legal systems.
Natural law (
Latin:
ius naturale,
lex naturalis) is law that is held to exist independently of the
positive law of a given political order, society or nation-state. As determined by nature, the
law of nature is implied to be objective and universal;
[1] it exists independently of human understanding, and of the
positive law of a given
state,
political order,
legislature or
society at large. Historically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze
human nature to
deduce binding rules of
moral behavior from nature's or God's creation of
reality and
mankind.
The concept of natural law was documented in
ancient Greek philosophy, including
Aristotle,
[2] and was referred to in
Roman philosophy by
Cicero. References to natural law are also found in the Old and New Testaments of the
Bible, later expounded upon in the
Middle Ages by
Christian philosophers such as
Albert the Great and
Thomas Aquinas. The
School of Salamanca made notable contributions during the
Renaissance.
Modern natural law theories were greatly developed in the
Age of Enlightenment, combining inspiration from
Roman law with philosophies like
social contract theory. It was used to challenge the
divine right of kings, and became an alternative justification for the establishment of a
social contract,
positive law, and
government—and thus legal rights—in the form of
classical republicanism. Conversely, the concept of natural rights is used by others to challenge the legitimacy of all such establishments.[
citation needed]
Contemporarily, the concept of natural law is closely related to the concept of
natural rights. Indeed, many
philosophers,
jurists and scholars use natural law synonymously with natural rights (
Latin:
ius naturale), or
natural justice.
[3] while others distinguish between natural law and natural right.
[1]
Because of the intersection between natural law and natural rights, natural law has been claimed or attributed as a key component in the
Declaration of Independence (1776) of the
United States, the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) of
France, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) of the
United Nations, as well as the
European Convention on Human Rights (1953) of the
Council of Europe.
Natural law - Wikipedia
