ABSTRACT
The 20th century has witnessed a general revival of interest in the concept of natural law, as evidenced by the neo-Scholastic movement, perhaps because of disenchantment with perceived inadequacies of ‘value-free’ legal relativism. Calls for a return to ‘just law’ based upon immutable values intensified after each of the two world wars. Demands for a recognition by jurists and legislators of a need to preserve human dignity in all circumstanceswere linkedtomovementscallingforarestatement of human values and a recognition of the responsibility of the legal system for their protection. Some important twentiethcentury international conventions enunciating human rights include prologues referring to ‘inalienable rights’.
