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The Forgotten Ground
The seminal text of Natural Law transmitted through the Middle Ages was from Cicero’s De
Republica:
There is indeed a law, right reason, which is in accordance with nature; existing in all, unchangeable,
eternal. Commanding us to do what is right, forbidding us to do what is wrong. It has dominion over
good men, but possesses no infuence over bad ones. No other law can be substituted for it, no part of it
can be taken away, nor can it be abrogated altogether. Neither the people nor the senate can absolve us
from it. It wants no commentator or interpreter. It is not one thing at Rome, and another thing at Athens:
one thing to-day, and another thing to-morrow; but it is a law eternal and immutable for all nations and
for all time.
Cicero (2017: 33)
According to this tradition, all people have an innate knowledge of this immutable law. It is expressed
in the universal desire for justice – justice in the sense of things being in harmony with truth and
their proper ends. This conception of justice belongs to nature itself, ruling even the animals in their
instinctual inclinations, and perceived by the human mind as the ‘reason’ inherent in nature. It is the
‘unwritten law’ behind any formulation of civil laws or codifed legal system. Any manmade law is
recognised as law only so far as it is in harmony with the Natural Law.
It is this law that informs human nature of its proper relation with society and with nature. And
this in turn gave birth to the ancient understanding of ‘right use’ or appropriate ends of things. For
Aristotle, the appropriate end of the polis is not simply living together, but living together well or
beautifully. This is possible only when citizens are virtuous (Aristotle, 2012, 1278b: 20–30; 2002;
115b:12–13, 1122b: 6–7). Indeed, only the virtuous life may be regarded as forming citizenship
since a citizen is one who has forethought for the common good. ‘For that which has the power to
foresee by thinking is naturally ruling and naturally mastering’ (Aristotle, 2012: 1252a: 31). Such
foresight is based on the perception that the whole has primacy over the parts: ‘And a city is more
primary by nature than the household, and more primary than each of us, for the whole is necessarily more primary than its parts’ (Aristotle, 2012: 1253a: 12–21).
OWNERSHIP AND RIGHT USE
To live well or beautifully therefore means regarding all action and use of things in terms of the
good of the whole. The question of right use therefore precedes the question of ownership. This
applies to the proper use of wealth and directly to our human relationship with the land, the earth,
and with the provisions of nature. Properly speaking, no part of nature may be ‘owned’ by anyone.
The land is the free gift to all creatures just as the air, water and sunshine. The Roman poet Ovid
laments how this wisdom was lost with the passing of the Golden Age:
The earth itself, which before had been, like air and sunshine,
A treasure for all to share, was now crisscrossed with lines
Men measured and marked with boundary posts and fences.
Ovid (2004: I/134–36)
The Stoic philosopher Seneca also wrote of the Golden Age before this was lost:
The social virtues had remained pure and inviolate before covetousness distracted society and introduced poverty, for men ceased to possess all things when they began to call anything their own … How
happy was the primitive age when the bounties of nature lay in common and were used freely; nor had
avarice and luxury disunited mortals and made them prey upon one another. They enjoyed all nature
in common, which thus gave them secure possession of public wealth. Why should I not think them the
richest of all people, among whom was not to be found one poor man?
Seneca (2007: 90)
The Forgotten Ground
The seminal text of Natural Law transmitted through the Middle Ages was from Cicero’s De
Republica:
There is indeed a law, right reason, which is in accordance with nature; existing in all, unchangeable,
eternal. Commanding us to do what is right, forbidding us to do what is wrong. It has dominion over
good men, but possesses no infuence over bad ones. No other law can be substituted for it, no part of it
can be taken away, nor can it be abrogated altogether. Neither the people nor the senate can absolve us
from it. It wants no commentator or interpreter. It is not one thing at Rome, and another thing at Athens:
one thing to-day, and another thing to-morrow; but it is a law eternal and immutable for all nations and
for all time.
Cicero (2017: 33)
According to this tradition, all people have an innate knowledge of this immutable law. It is expressed
in the universal desire for justice – justice in the sense of things being in harmony with truth and
their proper ends. This conception of justice belongs to nature itself, ruling even the animals in their
instinctual inclinations, and perceived by the human mind as the ‘reason’ inherent in nature. It is the
‘unwritten law’ behind any formulation of civil laws or codifed legal system. Any manmade law is
recognised as law only so far as it is in harmony with the Natural Law.
It is this law that informs human nature of its proper relation with society and with nature. And
this in turn gave birth to the ancient understanding of ‘right use’ or appropriate ends of things. For
Aristotle, the appropriate end of the polis is not simply living together, but living together well or
beautifully. This is possible only when citizens are virtuous (Aristotle, 2012, 1278b: 20–30; 2002;
115b:12–13, 1122b: 6–7). Indeed, only the virtuous life may be regarded as forming citizenship
since a citizen is one who has forethought for the common good. ‘For that which has the power to
foresee by thinking is naturally ruling and naturally mastering’ (Aristotle, 2012: 1252a: 31). Such
foresight is based on the perception that the whole has primacy over the parts: ‘And a city is more
primary by nature than the household, and more primary than each of us, for the whole is necessarily more primary than its parts’ (Aristotle, 2012: 1253a: 12–21).
OWNERSHIP AND RIGHT USE
To live well or beautifully therefore means regarding all action and use of things in terms of the
good of the whole. The question of right use therefore precedes the question of ownership. This
applies to the proper use of wealth and directly to our human relationship with the land, the earth,
and with the provisions of nature. Properly speaking, no part of nature may be ‘owned’ by anyone.
The land is the free gift to all creatures just as the air, water and sunshine. The Roman poet Ovid
laments how this wisdom was lost with the passing of the Golden Age:
The earth itself, which before had been, like air and sunshine,
A treasure for all to share, was now crisscrossed with lines
Men measured and marked with boundary posts and fences.
Ovid (2004: I/134–36)
The Stoic philosopher Seneca also wrote of the Golden Age before this was lost:
The social virtues had remained pure and inviolate before covetousness distracted society and introduced poverty, for men ceased to possess all things when they began to call anything their own … How
happy was the primitive age when the bounties of nature lay in common and were used freely; nor had
avarice and luxury disunited mortals and made them prey upon one another. They enjoyed all nature
in common, which thus gave them secure possession of public wealth. Why should I not think them the
richest of all people, among whom was not to be found one poor man?
Seneca (2007: 90)