Natural Law and the School of Exegesis: A Legal Analysis
Jusnaturalism
A) Positive Law and Justice
Natural law is the oldest current of legal thought. It supports the existence of another normative order in nature, composed of abstract principles aimed at protecting human dignity and the essential values related to it (life, liberty, etc.).
B) The Jusnaturalistic Design
Natural law is a current that brings together various legal theories that have in common the identification of a juridical order that is natural, superior, and anterior to positive law. Natural law is superior because it was imposed on legal systems, functioning as their foundation. It is earlier because it precedes social life, being present in the very essence of humanity. Some lawyers have proposed a parallel between natural and positive law: for every positive rule, there must be a corresponding natural norm.
C) Key Concepts of Natural Law
- The cosmic order: Natural law is a simple projection of the universal laws that guarantee the proper functioning of physical phenomena.
- Divine will: Natural law was revealed by God to humans through messengers and prophets.
- Human reason: Human beings, using their intelligence, identify certain minimum guarantees that must be respected to preserve their dignity.
- Human person: Natural rights are inherent to human beings; they belong to their essence, even if they are not aware of them.
D) Characteristics of Natural Law
- Universality: Natural law is equal for all human societies, regardless of their degree of cultural or technological evolution.
- Perpetuity: It is not eternal but ranges in time. As human guarantees belong to the human essence, they do not change from one season to another.
- Indispensability: Rights are essential; the holder of them cannot relinquish them.
- Indelibility: The law is indestructible; it cannot be destroyed by any force or power. No one can erase away fundamental rights.
- Unity: Enhances equality and brings natural law as something more concrete. Characterizes the grounds of the person individually.
School of Exegesis
A) Direct Identification Between Law and Legislation
This is the school of thought that created legalistic thinking, for which the law is the law and only the law. The source of this proposal was the Napoleonic Civil Code, which rejected the abstract and ideal form of law identified with natural rules. From this perspective, anything that does not belong to the legal system cannot be considered legal. The judge must develop a purely formal understanding of the text.
B) Valid Interpretive Methods
The School of Exegesis recognizes only two valid interpretive methods: grammatical and systematic. The grammatical method interprets the law in its purely textual structure, highlighting technical aspects such as punctuation, clausal structure, word placement, etc. The systematic method views the law as part of a whole, with which it must maintain a relationship of harmony and coherence. Through these methods, legalism believed it could hold the judge to the legal text, avoiding interpretations that could lead to a change in the desired response by society.
C) The Neutrality of the Judge
This aspect involves the removal of the judge in relation to the human side of the process so that they appear indifferent and insensitive to the effects of their decision on the lives of those involved. It considers the judge to be a simple applicator of a ready answer for which they have no responsibility.
D) The Weakening of the School
With the advance of French society, and especially with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the legal system revealed its fragility, and many facts were left unanswered by the application of French law. This led to a weakening of the legalistic argument.