St. Thomas Aquinas
The Summa Theologica - Part One
▪ Q 90, A 1 - Whether Law Pertains to Reason
▪ Law commands and forbids. Reason commands.
▪ Therefore, law pertains to reason
▪ Law is a rule and measure of acts. The rule and measure of human acts is the reason which directs toward an end.
▪ Law is the measure of human acts in two senses
▸ As that which measures and rules
▸ As that which is measured and ruled
▪ In order that the volition of what is commanded have the nature of law, it must be consistent with some rule of reason.
▪ Q 90, A 2 - Whether Law Is Directed Toward the Common Good
▪ The goal of human life is happiness, & law must principally regard the relationship to happiness.
▪ Legal matters are just when adapted to produce and preserve happiness for the body politic
▪ Any individual work which does not promote the common good is devoid of the nature of law.
▪ Q 90, A 3 - Whether Man’s Reason is Competent to Make Laws
▪ Law is in a person not only as one that rules, but also as one that is ruled.
▪ Private persons can only advise, and therefore cannot effectively lead another to virtue
▪ Only the whole people or some other ruler capable of inflicting penalties can effectively induce virtue.
▪ Q 90, A 4 - Whether Promulagation is essential to Law
▪ The definition of law is “an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community, and promulgated.”
▪ The natural law is promulgated when God instilled it into man’s mind, so as to be known to him naturally.
▪ Those not present when the law is promulgated are bound to observe the law when notified.
▪ Written law is continuously promulgated by being durable.
▪ Q 91, A 1 - Whether there is Eternal Law
▪ The law of the Supreme Reason must be unchangeable and eternal
▪ Therefore, the very idea of God governing the universe has the nature of law.
▪ All things foreknown and preordained by God are eternal law.
▪ Promulgation of eternal law is by word or mouth and by written documents.
▪ The end of Divine Government is God Himself.
▪ Q 91, A 2 - Whether there is a Natural Law
▪ Since all things are governed by eternal law, all things partake of the enternal law from its being imprinted upon them in the form of inclinations toward their proper acts and ends.
▪ By natural reason, we discern good and evil, which is nothing but a participation in the eternal law.
▪ Every act of reason and will is based upon naturally known principals, so the direction of our acts to their end is based upon the natural law.
▪ Q 91, A 3 - Whether there is Eternal Law
▪ The same procedure takes place in both practical and speculative reason.
▪ From the precepts of the natural law, human reason proceeds to specific determinations about particular matters – which are called human laws.
▪ Justice, therefore has its source in nature, when rules emanate from nature, are approve by custom, and sanctioned as law.
▪ We have knowledge of general principals, but not each single truth.
▪ Human reason itself is not the ruler of things.
▪ Q 91, A 4 - Whether there is Any need for the Eternal Law
▪ It is necessary for the directing of human conduct to have a Divine law in addition to natural and human law because
▸ It is by law that man is directed how to perform his proper acts in view of his last end.
▸ That man may know without any doubt what he ought to do and ought to avoid
▸ Man is not competent to judge interior motives, but only exterior acts.
▸ Human law cannot punish or forbid all evil deeds.
▪ Divine law thus forbids and punishes all “sins.”
▪ Q 92, A 1 - Does Law Make Men Good?
▪ Law is a dictate of reason in the ruler by which his subjects are governed.
▪ The Proper effect of law is to lead the subjects to proper virtue.
▪ Virtue is that which makes its subject good.
▪ Therefore, Law, properly, is to make people good either simply or in some particular respect.
▸ A law for the benefit of the ruler or opposed to Divine Justice makes one good only with repect to that government.
▸ Tyrannical laws are perversions of law yet have the nature of law.
▪ Q 92, A 2 - Whether the Acts of Law are Suitably Assigned
▪ Acts are of three kinds:
▸ Good generically
▸ Evil generically
▸ Generically Indifferent
▪ The effects of Law are Singular
▸ To advise or reward is not an effect of law because any private person can render advice or give a reward.
▸ Punishment is the effect of law because it pertains to none but the framer of the law having authority.
▪ Q 93 - The Eternal Law
▪ The Eternal Law is the type of Divine Reason directing all actions and movements.
▪ None can comprehend all the Eternal Law.
▪ Human law, insofar as it partakes of right reason, is derived from the Eternal Law, and is otherwise a perversion of violence.
▪ Whatever is subject to Divine Government is subject to the Eternal Law
▪ Rational creatures are subject to the Eternal law both by knowledge and active participation.