Natural law examines the relationship between morality and law and is based on principles derived from human nature. According to this, all human actions must be in accordance with natural moral laws. This law is not a human creation but arises from human nature or from a higher power (such as God). Lex naturalis (natural law) is close to ius naturale (natural right), which is not the right(s) of nature.

 

 

Lex naturalis refers to the set of moral or legal norms believed to be inherent in human nature and discoverable by reason, therefore it is a universal and immutable law, not established by humans but found in nature or reason. Natural law is not a formulated law, but this does not exclude formulation. Ius naturale refers to the rights or entitlements that human beings possess by nature; which is more focused on individual freedoms or claims than on duties or laws.

 

The table demonstrates some key aspects of how natural law theory – focusing on universal morals and rational human nature – relates with contemporary law’s interpretation of sustainability. These two frameworks overlap and establish sustainability not merely as a policy consideration but as a likelihood of a legal and moral obligation based on fundamental principles of jurisprudence. (1) Moral obligation is central to natural law reasoning. Human beings, as rational beings, have the moral obligation to respect the common good, including in this case the integrity of the ecology and health of the environment. A universal moral good finds its parallels with sustainability’s normative claim of acting as stewards of natural resources. (2) The area of inter- and intragenerational justice shows that natural law requires that the dignity and rights of all persons be protected, including future and present generations from a vertical (temporal) and horizontal (e.g. spatial) point of view. Natural law positions a powerful ethical and legal justification for the long-term goals of sustainability. This is a legal condition that justifies the interpretation of legal requirements extending obligations of duty to future generations and beyond current constituencies. (3) Environmental degradation for natural law is a breach of the natural order and of the dignity of creation. This philosophical stance will complement the legal requirement of environmental harm prevention by appealing to universal human rights - the rights to life, health, and a clean environment, as fundamental, non-derogable norms. (4) The natural law aspects serves to critique positive legal norms that allow behaviours inconsistent with sustainability. Instead, viewed as a whole, the legal norms which purport to establish the legality of harm to the environment, if considered as an empirical or logic-based conceptual artifact, are illegitimate, deficient or incapable in practice to be executed, as they violate superior moral standards ascertainable through human rationality. The comparisons yield a legal-theoretical base for embedding sustainability into constitutional, statute and case law (judicial) rationale with reference to issues of fundamental and human rights, dignity and common good.