“Natural Law” does not bestow citizenship on anyone. Natural law existed waaaaaaay before the United States was ever thought about.
The planets orbiting the sun is an example of Natural Law. The rising of the tides is an example of Natural Law. Natural law has nothing to do with the establishment of economic systems or geopolitical boundaries or the price of tea in China, as all of those are man-made and temporal and fickle, and can change on a whim. Natural Law is not so flexible.
The planets orbiting the sun is an example of Natural Law. The rising of the tides is an example of Natural Law. Natural law has nothing to do with the establishment of economic systems or geopolitical boundaries or the price of tea in China, as all of those are man-made and temporal and fickle, and can change on a whim. Natural Law is not so flexible.
"Natural Law" is the legal term used by the founders to describe principles of government which follow from "nature." Their arguments are to the extent that just as planets go circling round the sun is part of nature, so too is the proper relationship between man and government.
The Philosopher John Locke is one of the pioneers of this area of thought, and the founders looked to him and other philosophers of natural law when they pieced together the ideas that became this country.
Primary among these philosophers was Emmerich Vattel, who probably more than any other, influenced the people of the British Colonies to break away and become a Republic of States.
He said so. It is his ideas which we implemented. He wrote this in 1758.
Finally, several sovereign and independent states may unite themselves together by a perpetual confederacy, without ceasing to be, each individually, a perfect state. They will together constitute a federal republic: their joint deliberations will not impair the sovereignty of each member, though they may, in certain respects, put some restraint on the exercise of it, in virtue of voluntary engagements. A person does not cease to be free and independent, when he is obliged to fulfil engagements which he has voluntarily contracted.
Given that James Otis was the man who started the American Revolution, and given that Vattel's principles of natural law is what inspired him, It is a fair bet that our revolution came right out of the pages of Vattel's book.
Jefferson relied heavily on Vattel when writing the Declaration of Independence. His Declaration notes are all over it.
Natural law as understood by jurists is not the same as the laws of physics.