Natural Law

Ancient Greek philosophers were the first to elaborate a natural law doctrine. Heraclitus spoke in the 6th century BC of a common wisdom that pervades the whole universe, for all human laws are nourished by one, the divine. Aristotle distinguished between two kinds of justice: "A rule of justice is natural that has the same validity everywhere, and does not depend on our accepting it or not; a rule is legal [conventional] that in the …

…jurist John Austin. Jeremy Bentham was an outspoken advocate of law reform, who established political doctrines on things like natural law and contractarianism, also the first to produce a utilitarian justification for democracy. Mr. Bentham is also quoted to have said much on subjects as diverse as prison reform, religion, poor relief, international law, and animal welfare. Labeled as a visionary far ahead of his time, he advocated universal suffrage and the decriminalisation of homosexuality.