Note the reference to Natural Law in the first sentence of our Declaration of Independence.
By invoking "The Laws of Nature and Nature's God" the 56 signers of the Declaration incorporated a legal standard of freedom into the forms of government that would follow.
President John Quincy Adams, writing in 1839, looked back at the founding period and recognized the true meaning of the Declaration's reliance on the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." He observed that the American people's "charter was the Declaration of Independence. Their rights, the natural rights of mankind. Their government, such as should be instituted by the people, under the solemn mutual pledges of perpetual union, founded on the self-evident truth's proclaimed in the Declaration."
The Law of Nations or the Principles of Natural Law (1758)
The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God: The True Foundation of American Law
Okay.
Natural law was part of the foundation of American law, along with “the law of nations” (as well as, of course 2,000 plus years of Greco-Roman-English codes and common law precedential deciusions)
And now, as a consequence, we have The Law as it currently stands. A complete system of legislatures, courts and it’s own body of precedential decisions as to both common law and statute.
That being the case, the best (indeed only) guidance we have for applying “natural law” to current day controversies — is to apply The Law.
And for a litigant or defendant to appeal to “natural law” outside of The Law is simultaneously both pointless and redundant.
Tar, feathers & rail.
Mega Thanks for posting this.
Natural Law is the basis of all our man made laws.