Lex Iniusta Non Est Lex
Lex Iniusta Non Est Lex Meaning
Lex Iniusta Non Est Lex is a Latin maxim that means "an unjust law is no law at all." This principle asserts that any law that is unfair, oppressive or contrary to natural justice should not be considered as a valid law. This principle is based on the idea that law, as an instrument of justice, must promote fairness, equality, and social good. This maxim has been an essential part of legal philosophy since the time of ancient Greece and has influenced the development of modern legal systems. The concept of the rule of law is closely related to this principle as it presupposes that all laws must conform to certain fundamental principles of justice and fairness. Today, this maxim remains relevant in debates about the legitimacy of laws and the role of the legal system in promoting justice and the common good.
Natural Law
In its most extreme manifestation, this idea may be expressed via the Latin maxim lex injusta non est lex, which states that an unjust law (unjust in the context of natural law) does not qualify as a law and hence does not exist. In light of the above, if the government were to establish a law that mandated the murder disabled babies, then such a measure would not have any legal weight at all. Take close note of this aspect of the argument: the claim is not that such a legislation would offer a law that is highly unethical; rather, the claim is that despite the fact that it was lawfully enacted, the statute would provide no law at all, simply because the substance of the statute was so at variance with natural law. This is a very important distinction to make.
Thomas Aquinas on Lex Iniusta Non Est Lex
“Lex injusta non est lex” (a unjust law is not law) wrote Aquinas - a law may be unjust, he said, in any of several ways.
It is unjust in respect of the end when it is not beneficial to the common good but rather to the interests of the law-giver;
It is unjust in respect of authority when it exceeds the legitimate powers of the person purporting to make it;
And it is unjust in respect of form when it imposes burdens unequally in the community.
Any such unjust law would be invalid, said Aquinas, and disobedience might then be not merely a possibility but (if the law offended against natural law) a duty. In practice, however, he recommended obedience even to unjust laws for fear of the greater evil of instability.
Socrates’s comments on Lex Iniusta Non Est Lex
If you are the victim of unjust law, Socrates said you could do one of three things:
Try to use rationality in order to change the norm which falls short of that, e.g. through argument to change an irrational law into a rational one;
Exile; or
Obedience. This is the option Socrates followed: you can accept what the law says and suffer the consequences.
Positivist Law
Positivists believe that such a legislation, if that it was lawfully enacted, would allow for a law that was entirely valid despite the fact that it was evil and wicked. It's possible that one has a moral obligation to violate such a rule, but it doesn't change the fact that it's still a law. According to the positivist, it is precisely in this manner that it is possible to differentiate the mandates of morality from the dictates of the law. Very few natural lawyers are willing to defend the relationship between morality and law as being quite as close as this in the face of the criticism that has been levelled against it. Legal positivists do condemn immoral legislation. They simply do not argue against the proposition that an immoral law is nonetheless a law.
Law that degrades human personality
Martin Luther King Junior is a prominent figure from the 20th century who is often cited as an example of this natural law way of thought being put into practise. King was a prominent civil rights activist, preacher of the Christian faith, and African-American leader. In 1968, he was murdered. This passage was extracted from a letter that he sent while serving time in the Birmingham Jail in Alabama in 1963 as a result of his detention during a nonviolent civil rights demonstration. In a letter addressed to other Christian leaders, he says:
“There are two types of laws: there are just and there are unjust laws. I would agree with Saint Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all’.
“Now what is the difference between the two? ...A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the words of St Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”
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