ABSTRACT
Spinoza's theory owes a linguistic debt to the natural law tradition, but it is also capable of acquiring an entirely new perspective. For Spinoza, the law does not follow afinalistic rationale. Spinoza's theory is a genetic justification of the law. When he shows that God does not rule nature according to His will; and when he demonstrates that man does not work out the idea of God according to his image and likeness; he intends to claim that the relation between natural laws and divine laws is fictitious. If one considers natural law as the power of everything that exists rather than an expression of man's nature, the just order between cause and end can be reset. The Scholastic school of natural law created a well-defined structure: natural laws are not merely those which guide man towards the achievement of excellence and perfection, of honour and glory, of knowledge and the Good; they are also what makes divine laws necessary.
