ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the acknowledgment that, through various paths, modern natural law theory begins with Hobbes. Its point of arrival is the acknowledgment that Hobbes's natural law theory is such as to pave the way to legal positivism, more than to perfect the edifice of traditional natural law theory. Hobbes's main aim in elaborating his political theory is to give solid foundations to civil power. The ideological import of natural law theory was at the time very vigorous. Hobbes therefore thought that the best way to found civil power was to show that the obligation to obey the sovereign was a duty derived from a law of nature. In Hobbes's works, there are also hints and passages which may induce us to interpret Hobbes's natural law theory as a theory, that is, as a theory in which the law of nature provides the content of the norm, and positive law guarantees that the norm will be effective.
