ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to identify an Aquinian account of legal change, as far as the natural law and the human laws. It shows how the general model of thinking is present among contemporary scholars working in Aquinian tradition. The less common moment, though present in contemporary discourse, is the teleological structure of legal argumentation. The extra-legal reality determines the common good, and thus human good that are to be attained through legal institutions. The eternal and the divine law, coming directly from God’s acts, are situated beyond the scope of legal philosophy and pertain to respectively to philosophical theology and to theology proper. The shape of legal institutions for realizing the human good and expressing the respect for the human person is not presupposed. The pre-modern accounts on ethics seem to support the idea that human life has a purpose that is or only can be fulfilled by those who live up to ethical standards and meet moral demands.
