Paper Summary:

This paper examines two of the general theories of law - legal naturalism and legal positivism, both of which have had an enormous influence on law throughout history. The first part of the paper looks at natural law which describes those diverse theories of law that do not accept human law as true law and hold that a particular "something other than the positive law is the true law". The second section examines legal positivism where one of several general theoretical traditions is based on the belief that the source of knowledge lies in experience, not in reason, nor in mind.

From the Paper:

"A good example of the usefulness of classical legal naturalism can be seen in the rise of commercial law in the Middle Ages in Europe. As Glendon, Gordon, and Carozza point out, the rise of commercial law took place when Roman civil law provided no adequate coverage of new problems that arose as trade "emerged from the localism and relative economic stagnation of the Middle Ages" in the form of international banking, expanded maritime trade, and rising commercial centers."

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