The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction
• Translator’s Preface
• Part One: History of the Idea of Natural Law
• Chapter I: The Legacy of Greece and Rome
• Chapter II: The Natural Law In the Age of Scholasticism
• Chapter III: The Turning Point: Hugo Grotius
• Chapter IV: The Natural Law In the Age of Individualism and Rationalism
• Chapter V: The Turning Away From Natural Law
• Chapter VI: The Victory of Positivism
• Chapter VII: The Reappearance of Natural Law
• Part Two: Philosophy and Content of the Natural Law
• Chapter VIII: Being and Oughtness
• Chapter IX: Intellect and Will
• Chapter X: The Structure of the Sciences
• Chapter XI: The Nature of Law
• Chapter XII: Morality and Law
• Chapter XIII: The Content of the Natural Law
• Chapter XIV: Natural Law and Positive Law
• Chapter XV: Conclusion
• Select Bibliography
• General Studies
• Ancient
• Medieval and Scholastic
• Enlightenment
• Anglo-american
• Contemporary Debates

anglo-american

The Atiyah-Summers volume compares English and American legal cultures, including their respective attitudes toward natural law. For the English situation, see the works of Hart (1958), Postema, and Stanlis; for the American, see Brownson, Corwin, Hittinger (1990), and Tiedeman. The famous debate of a generation ago, between Fuller and Hart, exemplifies many of the differences between the English and American minds on natural law.

Concerning the role of natural law in judicial review, see my remarks in the Introduction on the books by Corwin, Cover, Haines, and Wright. For the Fourteenth Amendment and the jurisprudence of due process, see Arkes (1994), Ely, Nelson, and Stevens. The Barnett volume includes essays on the Ninth Amendment. Arkes (1990), Dworkin, and Richards agree that the Constitution requires a moral interpretation but differ considerably on both the substance and the logic of the morality that ought to guide jurisprudence. The essay by Hittinger explores natural law grounds for judicial restraint. Ely argues that theories of natural law provide no such restraint.

• Arkes, Hadley. Beyond the Constitution. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
• ———. The Return of George Sutherland: Restoring a Jurisprudence of Natural Rights. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.
• Atiyah, P. S., and R. S. Summers. Form and Substance in Anglo-American Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, 1987.
• Barnett, Randy E., ed. The Rights Retained by the People: The History and Meaning of the Ninth Amendment. Fairfax: George Mason University Press, 1989.
• Brownson, Orestes A. “The Higher Law.” In Essays and Reviews, Chiefly on Theology, Politics, and Socialism, 349–67. New York: D. and J. Sadlier, 1880.
• Corwin, Edward S. The “Higher Law” Background of American Constitutional Law. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1955.
• Cover, Robert M. Justice Accused: Antislavery and the Judicial Process. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975.
• Dworkin, Ronald. “‘Natural’ Law Revisited.” University of Florida Law Review 34 (1982): 165–88.
• Ely, John Hart. Democracy and Distrust. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980.
• Fuller, Lon. The Morality of Law. Rev. ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969.
• Haines, Charles Groves. The Revival of Natural Law Concepts. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1930.
• Hart, H. L. A. “Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morality.” Harvard Law Review 71 (1958): 593–629.
• ———. The Concept of Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961.
• ———. “Review of Lon L. Fuller, The Morality of Law.” In Essays in Jurisprudence and Philosophy, 343–64. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, 1983.
• Hittinger, Russell. “Liberalism and the American Natural Law Tradition.” Wake Forest Law Review 25, no. 3 (1990): 429–99.
• ———. “Natural Law in the Positive Laws: A Legislative or Adjudicative Issue?” Review of Politics 55, no. 1 (1993): 5–34.
• Nelson, William. The Fourteenth Amendment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.
• Postema, Gerald. Bentham and the Common Law Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.
• Richards, David A. J. Toleration and the Constitution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.
• Stanlis, Peter J. Edmund Burke and the Natural Law. Shreveport: Huntington House, 1986.
• Stevens, Richard J. Frankfurter and Due Process. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1987.
• Tiedeman, Christopher G. The Unwritten Constitution of the United States. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890.
• Wright, Benjamin Fletcher. American Interpretations of Natural Law. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1931.