Posted on 04/27/2015 5:45:41 PM PDT by Sean_Anthony
Law, as a principle, should acts to affirm and support natural liberty, rather than oppose it
In previous essays in this series, I have tried to emphasize that genuine constitutional republican government rests upon a foundation of the rule of law, which restrains government to fulfilling only certain, constitutionally-defined roles. Within legitimate governments, these roles are, in turn, defined by the principles of natural law and should serve to reinforce, rather than to undercut or overrule, the natural rights of the citizens. Our American Constitution was designed by our Founders to operate within this system of limits upon the power of government, as were the governments of the several States through the constitutional stipulations that each State shall be guaranteed a “republican form of government.”
One concept that is of great importance to all of this is the distinction made in law between laws that find their basis in malum in se and those which are grounded as being malum prohibitum. These concepts are really quite simple, and correlate quite well with the principle of natural law as a basis for right legislation and government.
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