LLB290 Study Guide - Final Guide: Natural And Legal Rights, Social Contract
NATURAL RIGHTS THEORISTS
Natural law developed into the natural rights which all humans innately possessed.
HOBBES (1588 – 1679):
Context:
Wrote during the English Civil War
Emphasised the need for a strong, almost dictatorial government
ELEMENTS:
Social contract:
oCompliance in exchange for a right to life
oState of nature: aggressive and brutish without rule
Unjust laws cannot be disobeyed without weakening the entire system
Metaphor of a Leviathan state – community as one
o‘safe in the belly of the whale’
LOCKE (1632 – 1704):
Context:
Extremely different view on nature to Hobbes
Believed the only element missing from law was protection of private property
ELEMENTS:
Social contract:
oInalienable rights to life, liberty and property
oLabour justifies private ownership
Government: to act as a commonwealth of men in the preservation of property
Citizens are entitled to revolt against unjust laws
‘the law of nature stands as an eternal rule to all men, legislators as well as others…
fundamental law of nature being the preservation of mankind, no human sanction can be
good or valid against it.’
BLACKSTONE (1723 – 1780):
Context:
English natural rights theorist
ELEMENTS:
Showed aspects of many theories
‘eternal, immutable laws of good and evil, to which the creator himself in all dispensations
conforms; and which he has enabled human reason’
oEternal, immutable laws: Cicero, Aquinas
oConforms: Hobbes, Aquinas
oHuman reason: Aristotle, Cicero, Aquinas
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Document Summary
Natural law developed into the natural rights which all humans innately possessed. Emphasised the need for a strong, almost dictatorial government. Social contract: compliance in exchange for a right to life, state of nature: aggressive and brutish without rule. Unjust laws cannot be disobeyed without weakening the entire system. Metaphor of a leviathan state community as one: safe in the belly of the whale". Believed the only element missing from law was protection of private property. Social contract: inalienable rights to life, liberty and property, labour justifies private ownership. Government: to act as a commonwealth of men in the preservation of property. Citizens are entitled to revolt against unjust laws. The law of nature stands as an eternal rule to all men, legislators as well as others fundamental law of nature being the preservation of mankind, no human sanction can be good or valid against it. ".
