Natural Law and Moral Philosophy: From Grotius to the Scottish Enlightenment. (book reviews)

Martha K. Zebrowski, Columbia University

Modern theories of natural law are of two essential types. Fundamental to one are the natural rights of individuals. In a theory of this type it follows that the bearers of subjective rights create human law and institutions by means of mutual contracts. The first to pursue this line of argument was Hugo Grotius. Fundamental to the other are the natural law and the moral duties it imposes on individuals whose performance of these duties is necessary to the maintenance of a complex of social and political relations. Where a theory of natural law ...

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