All law, including positive laws, according to the theory of natural law, is considered good only if it is compatible with natural law and bad if it contradicts natural law. Legal positivism is a theory that opposes natural law because it disagrees that natural law is integral to the validity of law, and instead asserts that man-made laws are inherently social constructs that replace natural law, that positive laws are just. unjust or immoral. Natural law`s approach to resolving ethical dilemmas begins with the fundamental belief that everyone has the right to live their lives. From there, natural law theorists draw a line between an innocent life and the life of an «unjust aggressor.» Natural law theory recognizes the legal and moral concept of self-defense, which is often used to justify acts of war. Aristotle (Politics III.15.1286a–IV 4 1292a) vigorously debated whether political authority would be best exercised by a «rule [primacy, supremacy] of the law» or «a rule of men,» say of the best man, or a democratic assembly, or even (rhetoric I 1 1354a32–b16) a court. He takes his arguments to suggest the answer that in almost all societies, on almost every occasion and question, it is preferable that government be made by or in accordance with the law, since (i) laws are the product of reason(s) and not passion(s), (ii) the sovereignty of a ruler or assembly tends to tyranny (i.e. governs in the interest of one party, B. (iii) equality requires that every mature person has a share in governance, and (iv) rotation of offices and civil servants is desirable and difficult to manage without legislation.
Thus, for Aristotle, the central case of practical authority is the government of a polis by law and rulers regulated by law. According to Dworkin, while lawmakers can legally enact laws that are justified by political arguments, courts cannot pursue such arguments when deciding cases. For a consequentialist argument of politics can never provide sufficient justification to decide the legal claim of one party and against the legal claim of another party. According to Dworkin, the invocation of an already existing right can ultimately only be justified by an argument of principle. Thus, to the extent that judicial decisions necessarily rule on legal claims, they must ultimately be based on moral principles that contribute to the best justification of legal practice as a whole. Students should look for local, state, or federal laws to find a particularly controversial law. The law should be controversial because of an ethical dilemma For example, it could be argued that the death penalty violates natural law because it involves violence. Abortion is another well-known controversial law that would fall within the realm of an ethical dilemma that applies to natural law theory.
Raz, Dickson and others accept that such an evaluation is necessary, but deny that it is moral: Dickson 2001. But once you start dealing with reasons, can anything else count as good reasons? If moral reason is nothing but practical reason in its entirety, completely critical and appropriate than reason, moral reason will have a crucial place in conceptualization in the social sciences, including descriptive general legal theory. And this will not have the effect that Hart feared, namely to leave the study of evil laws or institutions to another discipline: Hart 1961, 205; 1994, 209. On the contrary, they are the subject of intense attention in such a theory, precisely because of their opposition to legal systems (in terms of content and procedure) of a morally good nature. Aristotle`s politics, while methodologically not perfect overall, is a major witness to this type of far-sighted recognition and presentation of unreasonable social forms, practices, and institutions within a descriptive theory guided by the theorist`s moral judgments. The political-theoretical part of natural law theory explains and elaborates the foundations and real forms of state authority. It explains the similarities and differences between the practical authority of leaders (including Democratic voters who eliminate plebiscitary representatives or decision-makers) and the theoretical authority of experts and people of good judgment. It shows the reasons for the introduction and acceptance of practical authority as an almost always necessary means of preventing forms of harm and neglect which, because they involve injustice contrary to high moral principles (at least with regard to relations between persons). Political theory summarizes legal theory as one of its branches. As a theory of law, political theory explains the normal desire for governmental power to be exercised in political communities within the framework of a (in the classic slogan) «the rule of law and not of men» (1.3).