ABSTRACT
The concept of such an order is a difficult one for many people in the twentieth century to imagine, for historicism and relativism have created world-pictures on very different models. However, over the last 2,000 years in Europe, natural law arguments have been continually in use for or against monarchy, slavery, democracy and the behaviour of states towards each other. Edmund Burke called natural law ‘that law which governs all laws’, and this is its abiding character. It is supposed to be a standard by which legal institutions, positive laws, court judgments and individual actions can be judged. This standard says what is right and just for everyone. Natural law, while the highest form of law in principle, is the humblest in apprehension: every human being, in any form of society, is supposed to be informed of it by reason and conscience.
