WHAT ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF NATURAL LAW CAN YOU FIND IN CICERO?

When we think of natural law and its features what do we think of besides the countless numbers of philosophers? Natural law theories may appear to contain features relating to the connections between the cosmic order, divine will, human reason, human and social institutions and the law.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)

He was a central political figure during the turbulent reign of Julius Caesar. Roman lawyer, scholar, writer, philosopher, orator and statesman of the Roman period.

Born in ARPINOI. Exiled in 58 BC Returned to Rome in 53BC and became an Augur. Died by assassination by Mark Antony as Cicero opposed Ms seizure of power 43 BC

Cicero is said to be one of the important pre-Christian roman legal theorist Stoic natural law doctrines heavily influenced the Roman jurists of the second and third centuries A.D., and thus helped shape the great structures of Roman law which became pervasive in Western civilization and declared by legal historian Maitland to have left his ideas on every page of western jurisprudence.

Essentially it was Marcus Tullius Cicero who expressed principles that became the bedrock of liberty in the modern world.

Those views on natures way and natural law are expressed and explicated in the texts of Cicero:

They are drawn from On the Republic (5451 B.C.), On the Laws (51 B.C. ff.), and On Duties (44 B.C.).

He insisted on the primacy of moral standards over government laws. Above all, Cicero declared, government is morally obliged to protect human life and private property. When government runs amok, people have a right to rebelCicero honoured daring individuals who helped overthrow tyrants. These standards became known as natural law.

One of the oldest recorded definitions of natural law comes from the Roman orator, Cicero,: Right reason in agreement with nature, of universal application, unchanging and everlasting.There will not be a different law at Rome and at Athens, and different law now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law for all nations and for all times. (1928, 3.33)

Another quote found in DE RE PUBLICA, contains the three main elements of any natural law philosophy: True law is right reason in agreement with Nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting It is a sin to try to alter this law, nor is it allowable to attempt to repeal any part of it, and it is impossible to abolish it entirely [God] is the author of this law, its promulgator, and its enforcing judge.

Through philosophy Cicero brought about moral philosophy. The study of what is meant by right and wrong in searching for the essence of justice and an investigation of virtue were fundamental to his perception of the place of law in human affairs. In this sense, natural law is virtual because it exists in every human being even before ones power of reason is sufficiently developed to form actual ethical judgments.

Cicero studied Stoicism and Peripateticism and found that these two schools taught essentially the same things in regards to virtue. That the only difference between them was whether virtue was the only thing human beings should pursue or whether it was merely the best thing to be pursued.

According to the teachings of the Academy, Cicero was free to accept any argument that he found convincing, he thus chose Stoic teachings as he usually would apply when discussing politics and ethics.

Scott Mann explains Stoic philosophy teaches that there is a rationally observable higher order, a cosmic reason, which may be appreciated by all people, not just a civilised few. However, Cicero puts forth Stoic doctrines not dogmatically, as absolutely and always true, but as the best set of beliefs so far developed.

Cicero believed that virtue linked a man to a divine providence. That all men counted for something and have intrinsic value and thus were all linked by a bond of kinship derived from their place in divine providence. It was through the Stoic concept that Cicero found expression in his legal and political doctrines.

Cicero drew a distinction between positive law LEX VULGUS exercise of political power that may/not be appropriate; and LEX CAELESTIS divine law Scott man states that the DIVINE LAW was accessible to rational insight and inquiry thus producing natural law which was the proper model for making laws.

The views of Cicero are set out in DE REPUBLICA (54-52BC).

It describes the ideal commonwealth, such as might be brought about by the orator described in On the Orator.

He goes on to state that all human beings should engage in political activity.

Nature has given to mankind a compulsion to do good and want to defend the well-being of a communitys benefits, and this drive will prevail over temptations presented by a life of pleasure and ease.

The desire to increase wealth of the community, enrich a mans life, acts as the spur to unite and work in a common endeavour , to engage in those types of activity which demand the formal framework which only the state can provide.

The state framework can exist different forms and concentrates on 3 in particular which can give expression to mans inherent impulse to create socites. Monarchy: Supreme authority invested in one man (King): Duty to govern virtuously. Aristocracy: Selected group Democracy: State so organised that everything depends on the people

Cicero declares in favour of 4th type, which are all best features of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy.

Although Aristotle and Sophocles are oftentimes cited as the philosophers who first described the concept of a natural law, it was 3 centuries later Cicero articulated the concept of natural law more effectively. It was in his Laws, Cicero described "Law" as "the highest reason, implanted in Nature, which commands what ought to be done and forbids the opposite" (as cited in Morris, 1959, p. 44). In addition, Cicero noted that right is based, not upon men's opinions, but upon Nature