Positive Law & Thomas Hobbes

1. Positive Law & Thomas Hobbes Alyssa Battoia

2. Positive law is defined as law that is written down or codified.

3. Who is Thomas Hobbes Born in 1588 Teacher and philosopher Thomas Aquinas and Hans Kelsen were also philosophers who studied positive law

4. “Men in a state of nature, that is a state without civil government, are in a war of all against all in which life is hardly worth living. The way out of this desperate state is to make a social contract and establish the state to keep peace and order.”

5. Theories of Law • The law that human courts practice is positive law • Certain source and certain content • Legislation, custom, precedents, and equity • Courts enforce only the rules that are laid down by the supreme authority within a political community

6. Law  justice  morality • “A law is just a rule of civil conduct prescribed by the supreme power in a state commanding what is right and prohibiting what is wrong” • Just because a law is enforced by the court does not mean that it is consistent with the demands of justice • Law plays a role in regulating human conduct different from personal morlals

7. For Example… Personal moral law tells most of us not to steal, period. However, the theory of positive law states that it must be specified what counts as personal property, and what counts as actually stealing, and to make clear what the specific punishments are, for that will usually deter a person from committing an act

8. Strengths • Shows the importance of having laws written down and specified • Functions and theories of natural law are too general and have too many conflicting interpretations

9. Weaknesses • Positive law can not be compared with moral code • Contrasts to common and natural law • Positive=deliberately laid down, imposed or enacted Positive=lacking moral foce