Human Goods and Human Rights Law: Two Modes of Derivation from Natural Law

Prominent international law scholar H. Lauterpacht devoted most of his exploratory work to the issue of human rights in international law.This article reveals H. Lauterpacht’s views on the role of international law in the recognition and consolidation of human rights and the role of jusnaturalism as the basis of international human rights law. Analyzing the works by H. Lauterpacht, we can say that the scholar was the founder of international human rights law. Natural law and natural human rights, according to H. Lauterpacht, have been the unchanging basis of human rights of all times.The origins and periodization of jusnaturalism in the works of leading international law scholar are considered. The main statements of the representatives of the natural law concept of different times, in particular, the basic ideas in the works of Socrates, Aulis Aarnio, Francisco de Vitoria, Francisco Suarez, Alberico Gentili, Thomas Hobbes, Samuel von Pufendorf, Hugo Grotius are outlined.The views of prominent philosophers are the foundation of the concept of jusnaturalism. Numerous supporters of the concept of natural law in different periods of history testify to its importance at every stage of human rights development.International law in this matter is a kind of second stage of recognition and protection of human rights, after recognition in the national law of states.International law is designed to consolidate the rights granted by nature to the human in the international arena.H. Lauterpacht saw the real recognition and protection of human rights by enshrining them in an international document signed by all countries of the world.The scientist proposed a draft international document on the recognition of human rights at the international level called International Bill of the Rights of Man. The provisions proposed in this document were later enshrined in international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966.

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Modern Islamic Conceptions of Sovereignty in Comparative Perspective

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Political Theory ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190253752.013.37 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 545-564

Author(s):

Andrew F. March

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Natural Law ◽

Political Action ◽

Electoral Politics ◽

The Political ◽

Legitimate Authority ◽

Human Rights Law ◽

Muslim Majority ◽

Legitimacy Crisis ◽

Political Realm

The ambiguities and conflicts internal to modern Islamic debates about sovereignty are not simply important for understanding the nature of the legitimacy crisis experienced by many modern Muslim majority polities (a crisis that has been hardly resolved by the recent suppression of Islamist electoral politics). They are at the center of a common set of ethical and political questions; for example, what does it mean to assert that there is a law that precedes and constrains political action (whether natural law, human rights law, or sharīʿa law) when the meaning of that prepolitical law must be adjudicated or asserted within the political realm; what are the limits of the legitimate authority of a self-governing people to fundamentally reconstitute its form of governance; and how can lawmaking or sovereign adjudication be seen as grounded in popular will formation?

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L'idée de droit naturel à la lumière de la sociologie juridique de Max Weber

Les Cahiers de droit ◽

10.7202/042871ar ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 29 (1) ◽

pp. 121-146

Author(s):

Michel Coutu

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Natural Law ◽

Max Weber ◽

Legal Positivism ◽

Sociology Of Law ◽

Human Rights Law ◽

Strong Basis ◽

Modern Natural ◽

Recent Trends ◽

Value Rationality

Max Weber's Sociologyof Law provides, according to the author, a strong basis for understanding and discussing not only modern natural law but also contemporary human rights law. In the first part of this article, Weber's sociological analysis of natural law is briefly outlined, mainly in relation to the opposition between formal and material rationality of law. In the Weberian perspective, the antinomy between formal and material natural rights plays a key role in understanding the decline of natural law, and partly explains the irresistible rise of a purely positivistic conception of law. The second part of the study shows how the idea of natural law is in itself inconsistent with Max Weber's epistemological positions. For the author, the Sociology of Law remains closely connected to these positions, which form the basis of the Weberian methodology of (value-free) scientific research. In conclusion, the author emphasizes the importance of Weberian epistemology for the understanding of natural law and, to a certain extent, of contemporary human rights law. He raises doubts, however, as to whether legal positivism can provide a proper comprehension of recent trends in contemporary human rights law. He then suggests that the positivistic conclusion of the Sociology of Law should be reconsidered in light of the reemergence of value-rationality as a basic principle of democratic legal order.

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