Law in Action Emory University School of Law
King Hammurabi is revealed the code of laws by the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash, also revered as the god of justice. Hugo Grotius, the founder of a purely rationalistic system of natural law, argued that law arises from both a social impulse—as Aristotle had indicated—and reason. Immanuel Kant believed a moral imperative requires laws “be chosen as though they should hold as universal laws of nature”. Jeremy Bentham and his student Austin, following David Hume, believed that this conflated the “is” and what “ought to be” problem. Bentham and Austin argued for law’s positivism; that real law is entirely separate from “morality”.
Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more. E.g. in England these seven subjects, with EU law substituted for international law, make up a “qualifying law degree”. For criticism, see Peter Birks’ poignant comments attached to a previous version of …