Natural Law and Natural Rights

The natural law and natural rights tradition emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries and argues that the world is governed by natural laws which are discoverable by human reason. A key aspect of this intellectual tradition is the notion that natural rights are not created by governments. Governments are instead created to secure these rights.

Liberty Fund is publishing an extensive collection of works about natural law in its Natural Law and Enlightenment Series including works by Hugo Grotius, Samuel von Pufendorf, and Francis Hutcheson.

See also the following schools of thought which supported the natural law and natural rights tradition:

• 17th Century Natural Rights Theorists
• The French Englightenment
• The Scottish Enlightenment
• The Founding Fathers of the US Constitution
• 19th Century Natural Rights Theorists

And the 19th Century Utilitarians which did not.

For further reading on this topic see the works listed below:

• BOLL 71: Lysander Spooner, “Natural Law; or the Science of Justice” (1882) (Lysander Spooner)
• Essays on Church, State, and Politics (Christian Thomasius)
• Institutes of Divine Jurisprudence. With Selections from Foundations of the Law of Nature and Nations (Christian Thomasius)
• A Methodical System of Universal Law: Or, the Laws of Nature and Nations (Johann Gottlieb Heineccius)
• The Miscellaneous Works (Sir James Mackintosh)
• The Natural and Artificial Right of Property Contrasted (Thomas Hodgskin)
• The Natural Law: A Study in Legal and Social History and Philosophy (Heinrich Rommen)
• Natural Law; or the Science of Justice (1882) (Lysander Spooner)
• Political Theories of the Middle Ages (1881, 1900) (Otto von Gierke)
• Treatise on the Laws (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
• Selections from Three Works (Francisco Suárez)
• A Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy (LF bi-lingual ed.) (1747) (Francis Hutcheson)
• Social Statics (1851) (Herbert Spencer)
• A Treatise of the Laws of Nature (Richard Cumberland)
• Two Books of the Elements of Universal Jurisprudence (Samuel von Pufendorf)
• The Two Treatises of Civil Government (Hollis ed.) (Thomas Hollis)
• The Writings of Thomas Paine, Vol. II (1779-1792) (Thomas Paine)