Natural Law and America's Legal System

Paper Summary:

This paper presents an examination of how natural law impacts the American legal system. The paper provides a general overview of natural law and then explores how natural law applies to the current legal system in the United States. It argues that the natural law helps to drive the current system and describes how this is true.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Natural Law
Natural Law and the American Legal System
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Natural law in its most simple form, is the unwritten law of mankind. It is a concept of principle morals and values that are, or at least should be shared by all of mankind because of the central goodness of their concept. (Horowitz, 2000)"
"Natural law is therefore distinguished from -- and provides a standard for -- positive law, the formal legal enactments of a particular society (Dolhenty, 2004)."
One example of this is the belief that killing is wrong. There are few humans or societies on earth that would disagree with the basic tenet that the murder of another person without reason is wrong. (Green, 2005) It takes a loved one from a family, it removes financial support from children, it takes someone out of society that may have moved on to contribute great things and if one is Christian, then the act of murder is something that God does not allow. It is not up to man to determine who lives or dies, it is God's choice and to kill is to try and play God."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bridges, Linda (1996) Rule of non-law.(legal system) National Review
• Dolhenty, Jonathan Ph.D. An Overview of Natural Law Theory (Accessed 12-05-06) http://radicalacademy.com/philnaturallaw.htm
• Green, Steven (2005) Legal realism as theory of law. William and Mary Law Review
• Guerra, Marc D (2005) The limits of Darwinian Natural Law. Perspectives on Political Science
• Horowitz, Mirah (2000) Kids who kill: a critique of how the American legal system deals with juveniles who commit homicide. Law and Contemporary Problems

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