Kinds of Non-Jural Law

Burce. Del Rosario. Guevarra. Villanueva. Zerrudo.

Two Broad Classifications of Law• Jural - enforceable in

the courts– Particular– Collective– Abstract

• Non-Jural - enforced only by indefinite authority for there are no courts in which it is administered as such– Divine Law– Natural Law– Moral Law– Physical Law

Divine Law

Divine LawDivine Law

What is Divine Law?What is Divine Law?

Enacted by God

revelation

divine commands

A law or set of principles

Establish the Universe

Prevent chaos

Divine Law: In general

• It enjoys the authority of God Himself.• Wrongdoers are punished while those who live in

God’s laws are protected. • It is universal in nature - it applies everywhere

equally.• Acceptance and obedience to the Divine Law insures

reward, spiritual as well as material, and its rejection warrants punishment in both worlds.

• Divine laws are applied with justice and are entirely free of compromise.

St. Thomas Aquinas on Divine Law

Divine law is divided into the Old Law and the

New Law.

God's Divine Law not only consists of the Ten Commandments but also consists of Statutes and Judgments.

Examples of divine law:

Divine law provides a definite means for evaluating human laws.

Divine Law

• Thou shall not kill.• Thou shall not commit

adultery.• Thou shall not steal.

Human Law

• Art. 246, 248, 249 of the RPC (parricide, murder, homicide)

• Art. 333, RPC (adultery)• Art. 308, 310 of the RPC

(theft)

Divine Law is eternal.Divine Law is eternal.

Natural Law

Natural Law:Definition

• A moral theory of jurisprudence, which maintains that law should be based on morality and ethics

• In philosophy, a system of right or justice held to be common to all humans and derived from nature rather than from the rules of society or positive law

• The Greeks - Aristotle - what was “just by nature” was not always the same as what was “just by law”

• The Stoics - pointed to the existence of a rational and purposeful order to the universe

- unsuccessful experiment of Critias = showed that the rule of law, not men, was correct

Natural Law:History

• The Christians1. Augustine - equates natural law with man's

Pre-Fall state2. Gratian (12th century) - reconnected the

concept of natural law and divine law. • Success of Dutch Republic – showed that the

medieval understanding of natural law was sufficiently accurate.

Natural Law:History

• John Locke – claimed that men are by nature free and equal and people have rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and property.

• 19th century – people started to forget what natural law was

• Today – natural law as a code – no such thing as natural law – not written down

Natural Law:History

• Hobbes- Natural law - placed no important limits on the

power of the ruler to do as he pleased - State of Nature is a war of all against all, and life is

“poor, solitary, nasty, brutish, and short” - Argues that the state is entitled to unlimited power,

and right is whatever the state, through its laws, says is right, and wrong whatever the state says is wrong

Natural Law:Criticisms

• Absolutists/Romantics- Argues that people have different conceptions

of what counts as right and wrong

Natural Law:Criticisms

• Maintains that certain moral laws transcend time, culture, and government

• There are universal standards that apply to all mankind throughout all time

Natural Law:Conclusion

Moral Law

Moral Law

• The rule for the government of free and intelligent action, as opposed to necessary and unintelligent action

• “Categorical Imperative” - Immanuel Kant– Moral duty – obligation binding upon all moral

agents without exception– Always act so that you can will the rule of your

action to be a universal law

Moral Law:Starting Positions

• 1. From a moral perspective, (considered as a moral agent) we are all equal. No one is privileged.

• 2. The consequences of our actions are morally irrelevant.

• 3. However, our WILL is completely under our own direct control (usually, at least in healthy adults) thus our will is the only basis for moral evaluation of our actions.

Formulations of theCategorical Imperative

• 1. Always act in such a way that you could will that the maxim of your act become a Universal Law.

• 2. Always act in such a way that you treat Humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another as an end in itself and never merely as a means.

• 3. Always act in such a way that your are both legislator and legislated in the kingdom of "Ends."

Moral Law and the Other Non-

Jural Laws

• Divine Law– Both concerned with the precepts of good and

right conduct as the basis of its norms– However, moral law is not necessarily concerned

with the law of religious faith. A person may not be religious and yet still be ethical.

• Natural Law– Both apply equally to all persons everywhere – However, moral law is ethical in foundation;

natural law is strictly metaphysical

Moral Law and the Other Non-

Jural Laws

• Physical Law– Physical law is the totality of uniformities and

orders of sequence which combine together to govern physical phenomena

Moral Law and the Other Non-

Jural Laws

Physical Law

Physical law:Definition

• A physical law or scientific law is, according to the Oxford English dictionary, "a theoretical principle deduced from particular facts, applicable to a defined group or class of phenomena, and expressible by the statement that a particular phenomenon always occurs if certain conditions be present."

• They are typically conclusions based on repeated scientific experiments and observations over many years and which have become accepted universally within the scientific community

• Physical science purports to give explanations of physical phenomena because it claims to explain why physical events occur and how physical objects work. On one level, such knowledge can have purely practical value. If we know how the natural world works, we can predict events and prepare accordingly, we can make use of natural principles to create devices and processes that will make our lives easier or more convenient, or fulfill various tasks we may conceive.

But, they do not properly answer WHY things are the way they are.

What are some of the general properties of

physical law?

• True, at least within their regime of validity. By definition, there have never been repeatable contradicting observations.

• Universal. They appear to apply everywhere in the universe.

• Simple. They are typically expressed in terms of a single mathematical equation.

• Absolute. Nothing in the universe appears to affect them.• Stable. Unchanged since first discovered • Omnipotent. Everything in the universe apparently must

comply with them (according to observations)

What are examples of this so called

physical law?

1. Newton's Three Laws of Motion:• Sir Isaac Newton developed the Three Laws of

Motion (law of gravity, conservation of mass-energy, and conservation of momentum) which describe basic rules about how the motion of physical objects change. Newton was able to define the fundamental relationship between the acceleration of an object and the total forces acting upon it.

2. Laws of Thermodynamics• The laws of thermodynamics are actually

specific manifestations of the law of conservation of mass-energy as it relates to thermodynamic processes.

3. Electrostatic Laws• Coulomb's law and Gauss's law are

formulations of the relationship between electrically charged particles to create electrostatic force and electrostatic fields. The formulas, it turns out, parallel the laws of universal gravitation in structure. There also exist similar laws relating to magnetism and electromagnetism as a whole.

Physical Law and Philosophy……

• Only a madman would insist that our formulation of quantitative law DOES NOT aid our understanding of the world. Physical Law enables us to predict things more or less. A world without predictability would be a world without order; it would render our existence meaningless and intolerable.

• Contrary to all current thinking within science, the more we formulate the precise and determining action of a physical law, the less it tells us about the events it governs. We gain more and more exactness about less and less of the world's concrete expression.

• This can be illustrated by describing what happens when we release a leaf in a vacuum chamber. The leaf now "drops like a rock". That is, we get a trajectory that seems to be little more than the graphic display of a mathematical expression we call the "law of gravity". To see an event in this way as a mathematical necessity made visible gives us a powerful sense of explanation.

• BUT, in doing this, we restrict ourselves to the sphere of our mathematical explanation and do not smuggle in qualitative aspects of the phenomenon lying outside the explanation

• Thus, instead of being illuminating, philosophers believe that physical law actually leads us to more questions, like:

-How these laws relate to the world they help us understand?

-Why are physical laws the way they are?

-Do physical laws make things happen?

Conclusion