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Natural Law
(5,543 words)

[German Version]

I. Philosophy

Natural law is the essence of the legal norms that claim to be binding on all human beings, independent of positive laws and conventions. The term goes back to the distinction between nature(phýsis) and law (nómos; Law/Natural law), put forward by the Sophists of the 5th century bce in order to challenge the traditional positive laws. According to Antiphon, the precepts of such laws are arbitrary, whereas the precepts of nature, w…

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Zenkert, Georg, Herms, Eilert, Hock, Klaus and Link, Christoph, “Natural Law”, in: Religion Past and Present. Consulted online on 28 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1877-5888_rpp_COM_024040>
First published online: 2011
First print edition: ISBN: 9789004146662, 2006-2013



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