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Full Idea
For the positivist, law is law by virtue of its form; for the naturalist, by virtue of its content.
Clarification
'Naturalists' believe in natural law
Gist of Idea
For positivists law is a matter of form, for naturalists it is a matter of content
Source
Roger Scruton (A Dictionary of Political Thought [1982], 'law')
Book Ref
Scruton,Roger: 'A Dictionary of Political Thought' [Pan 1983], p.259
A Reaction
Clearly a perverse and 'unnatural' social rule (backed by government and implied force) is a 'law' in some sense of the word. It is hard to see how you could gain social consensus for a law if it didn't appear in some way to be 'natural justice'.
| 7403 | Grotius ignored elaborate natural law theories, preferring a basic right of self-preservation [Grotius, by Tuck] |
| 7573 | The legal positivism of Hobbes said law is just formal or procedural [Hobbes, by Jolley] |
| 20930 | The existence of law is one thing, its merits and demerits another [Austin,J] |
| 20931 | Hart replaced positivism with the democratic requirement of the people's acceptance [Hart,HLA, by Zimmermann,J] |
| 7592 | For positivists law is a matter of form, for naturalists it is a matter of content [Scruton] |
| 20492 | Following some laws is not a moral matter; trivial traffic rules, for example [Wolff,J] |