Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION TO LEGAL PHILOSOPHY I.
LAW
- Rule of conduct, recognized by custom or by formal enactment, which the community considers as binding upon its members. - STANFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILOSOPY: “Complex social Phenomenon” and “one of the most intricate aspects of human culture”. - is normative in that it guides human conduct. - Not only the source of normative conduct for there is also; 1. Religion 2. Morality 3. Custom 4. Convention - Certainly connected with the other sources of normative behavior but at the same time it is distinct from them. - In fact religion, morality, equity, custom and societal conventions are among the sources of law. - Law from the Old English lagu (pl. laga) means something laid down or fixed. - Old Germanic lagan means: put or lay. - Legal comes from latin legalis, where lex means law. LEX TERRAE-law of the land LEX FORI- law of the forum or court LEX LOCI- law of the place LEX MERCATORIA- law or custom of merchants o CICERO –law as natural force the highest reason one Implanted in nature, which commands what ought to be done and forbids the opposite. It is the mind and reason of the intelligent man whose natural function is to command right and forbid the wrongdoing. o AQUINAS – law is a rule and measure of human acts pertaining to reason. -law is all those things that are inclined to something. -for the true will to be lawful it has to be in accord with reason. -if the will of the sovereign would have the force of law it must be under the command of reason, otherwise the sovereign’s will would savor of lawlessness rather than of law.
- SUPREME COURT- rule established to guide our actions, with no Binding effect until it is enacted. -thus it has no application to past times but only to future time. GENERAL/ABSTRACT SENSE
SPECIFIC/CONCRETE SENSE
II. III.
Law is the science of moral laws founded on the rational nature of man that governs his free activity for the realization of individual and societal ends of life. It is a rule of conduct, just obligatory, formulated by legitimate power for common observance and benefit.
DISSATISFACTION WITH THE LAW? P.3-4 PHILOSOPHY -means love of wisdom or the search for truth. -comes from GREEK term philosophia -philosophia is derived from philos , love or philia, friendship, affection, affinity for, attracted towards and Sophos a sage , a wise one, or Sophia, wisdom, knowledge, skill , intelligence. -it is the search for reality and truth of things. -it seeks to discover the essence, nature and foundation of things, as opposed to their appearance. -endeavors to understand fundamental truths about people, the world, the relationship of people to the world and of the people to one another. o PYTHAGORAS (580 B. C.- 500 B.C.) -first to call himself philosophos -sophia meant the knownledge of the underlying reasons or causes for things as they appear to us. -this means to get to know the reality or essence of a thing beyond its common or day-to-day appearance. -Philosophy is the search for meaning. o BROWNING’S FRA LIPPO LIPPI: insists that life has meaning, and to find it is “my meat and drink”. -Philosophy’s task and mission to peel the multifarious layers concealing life’s true aims, and for a thoughtful person this need be done on a day by day not minute by minute basis. -Philosophers are the Mityas of the world who constantly seek to understand since they are those who don’t want, millions, but an answer to their questions.
a. b. c. d.
o FR. RANHILIO AQUINO: the knowledge (scienta) of things by their ultimate causes or reasons (per ultimas causas vel rationes) Philosophy deals with the final causes, the ultimate causae, or the prima pricipia that is something that deals with fundamental beginnings, first principles and basic elements. That which provides the person with a map that gives coherence to his activities and that makes of human life a meaningful whole. Something that uncovers the meaning of phenomena. Endeavor which gives a logical account of the way we use our terms, which is within the realm of analytic philosophy.
-PHENOMENA- mean something that which appears, that which can be gleaned by the senses but whose inner meaning and reality remain concealed. o SOCRATES- no small matter but how we ought to live. And living rightly is to exercise knowledge and reason. o KOLAK AND MARTIN- philosophy is an axe. In its attempt to deeper levels of understanding, it must continually question everything we believe in. o DURANT- if poetry reveals to us the beauty our untaught eyes have missed, and philosophy gives us the wisdom to understand and forgive, it is enough, and more than the worlds wealth. -LEGAL PHILOSOPHY (Jurisprudence)- is a systematic study that seeks to understand the; a. nature and essence of law b. its definition and elements c. sources of authority d. various applications and development e. its role in society -Concerns
