Реферат: Montesquieus Definition Of Law Essay Research Paper

?Prime Reason. (Loy 89)? ?God is related to the universe, as Creator and

Preserver; the laws by which He created all things are those by which He

preserves them. He acts according to these rules, because He knows them; He

knows them, because He made them; and He made them, because they are in relation

to His wisdom and power.? (Spirit) It is true that Montesquieu seems to waver

between ?natural law? and ?laws of nature? as expressions. It is also

true that he defines laws of nature as those that derive solely from our beings

(Loy 90). ?By the allurement of pleasure they preserve the individual, and by

the same allurement they preserve their species. They have natural laws, because

they are united by sensation; positive laws they have none, because they are not

connected by knowledge.? (Spirit) Animals however, are without knowledge but

have some natural laws. Although Montesquieu does spare us the

seventeenth-century discussion of pre-social man, he has not escaped certain

confusions in regards to human reason and Prime Reason (Chan). ?Before there

were intelligent beings, laws were possible; they had therefore possible

relations, and consequently possible laws. Before laws were made, there were

relations of possible justice. To say that there is nothing just or unjust but

what is commanded or forbidden by positive laws, is the same as saying that

before the describing of a circle all the radii were not equal.? (Spirit) It

is also in his discussion of natural law that Montesquieu comes to the

conclusion that after God comes first a state of peace. For Montesquieu, peace

is the first law of nature. Following natural laws are nourishment, sex, and

society (Chan). ?But the intelligent world is far from being so well governed

as the physical. For though the former has also its laws, which of their own

nature are invariable, it does not conform to them so exactly as the physical

world.? (Spirit) Once the natural law is done with (and Montesquieu started

there for many reasons), one is on relatively clearer, emperic grounds with the

positive laws. International law, political law, civil law: nothing in

Montesquieu?s estimation could be more easily grasped from looking at man?s