Natural law

Natural law is the view that there exists an absolute and eternal standard of value. Alternatively, natural law can be seen as an "ultimate measure of right and wrong, as the pattern of the good life or life according to nature". Natural law is seen as a form of justice or set of laws which human authority can express, or ought to express, but does not create. Law which is created by humans is often termed positive law. Natural law is closely related to the position of objective ethics, as contrasted to subjective ethics, whereby it is believed that value judgments are able to satisfy a truth function, i.e., be judged as being either true or false. The source of natural law has been attributed at various times to divine power, the structure of the universe, or the result of human's capacity to reason.

Links

 * Introduction to Natural Law by Murray N. Rothbard (from the first 5 chapters of The Ethics of Liberty)
 * With or Without a God: Natural Law and Property Rights by Murray N. Rothbard (from An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, vol. 1, Economic Thought Before Adam Smith), 1995
 * Classical Natural Law and Libertarian Theory by Carlo Lottieri (from Property, Freedom and Society: Essays in Honor of Hans-Hermann Hoppe.)
 * Classical Natural Law and Libertarian Theory by Carlo Lottieri (from Property, Freedom and Society: Essays in Honor of Hans-Hermann Hoppe.)