ABSTRACT
This article presents the development of Jacques Maritain’s writings on natural law, the ius gentium or common law of civilizations, and natural rights, and their bearing on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in December 1948. While Maritain was not a member of any of the committees involved in the preparation of the UDHR, he was significantly involved in advocacy for it, both during and following its drafting, and it is plausible that he had some influence on the content of the text as well. Maritain saw the UDHR as “the preface to a moral Charter of the civilized world,” as a document containing “rights … which any society which has attained a condition of political justice is required to recognize,” and that could serve as “an unwritten common law.” Although the UDHR has been accused of reflecting Western values, its adoption, unopposed, by the UN General Assembly with representatives from more than fifty countries, along with Maritain’s justification of it by appeal to natural law and to the common law of humanity, is a testament to its universality.
