POLI 347 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Tyrant, Thomism, Mixed Government
Document Summary
Topic 3 (sept 16 & 18) theories of natural law: cicero and aquinas and some modern themes. Reading/s shirley letwin, on the history of the idea of law, pp. Lex this term indicates generally a rule of law binding universally on the citizens of a given state. The rule, no crime without law, and no punishment without law, was unknown. Legislation and adjudication were regularly confounded by being lodged in the same hands and by indifference to keeping the distinction clear. 12 tables ius referred to the ground of this declaration. (unwritten law) How could unchanging law be equally suitable for all times and places in a world where human beings and things are constantly changing. In short, cicero"s identification of law with justice and nature, and his insistence that the one true law is known intuitively by all men, takes no account of the mortal character of the human world.