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Natural Law
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What is Natural Law?

Natural law is one of the oldest and most debated foundations of legal and moral philosophy, making it a central topic in courses on jurisprudence, political theory, ethics, and constitutional law. The core question it raises — whether law derives its authority from reason and nature rather than solely from human convention — has occupied thinkers across centuries and traditions. Students engage with this topic because it sits at the intersection of law, philosophy, and theology, demanding careful analysis of how principles like justice, rights, and reason shape the rules societies live by. Figures such as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Plato's Socrates appear prominently in this conversation, as do frameworks connecting natural law to religious institutions like the Catholic Church's Magisterium and contemporary legal theorists like John Finnis.

Student papers approach natural law from several distinct angles. Comparative analysis is especially common, setting thinkers like Hobbes and Locke against each other to examine competing visions of nature, rights, and society. Others take a jurisprudential angle, tracing how natural law principles shape legal theory and interpretation. Some papers ground abstract theory in concrete issues such as same-sex marriage and equal protection, while others situate natural law within broader surveys of Western ethical traditions or the search for a universal ethic.

A strong essay on natural law needs a focused thesis about which version of natural law is being examined and what it claims to explain or justify. Evidence drawn from primary philosophical or legal texts carries the most weight. The most common pitfall is treating natural law as a single unified doctrine — successful essays acknowledge that thinkers disagree sharply about what nature commands and why that should bind human law.

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Research Paper Doctorate
Thomas Paine and Peter Oliver on the American Revolution's legitimacy
Criticisms against and praise for colonialism in America: A comparative analysis of "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine and "Origin and Progress of the American Rebellion" by Peter Oliver
Research Paper Doctorate
Aquinas' natural law theory applied to sodomy cases
Aquinas' Natural Law implies divine, immutable, eternal laws. Human beings can know natural law through their faculties of reason; however, not all manmade laws reflect natural law.
Research Paper Doctorate
Robert Altman's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" and realism in the Western genre
Realism in Film -- Altman's vision of a wild and amoral West: "McCabe & Mrs. Miller"
Research Paper Undergraduate
Hobbes's state of nature and the social contract theory
Thomas Hobbes thought that all human beings were equal in the state of nature, but all equally greedy, violent, vengeful and brutal. As he argued in Leviathan, this was a universal trait of humanity, not a simply a racial one, and that the purpose of contracting to form a state and civil society was basically to keep order. Hobbes did not particularly care what form the government took after the contract, since its task was to maintain control over the instruments of violence and coercion and provide security. His sovereign state was highly authoritarian rather than democratic, and ideas like justice, freedom and equality did not exist in his version of the social contract.
Thesis Undergraduate
Roberson v. Rochester and Pavesich v. New England privacy cases
Employee privacy issues have been the subject of litigation for many years. They are handled differently by private and public employers since employees are covered by different acts and precedents differently. This paper explores employee privacy torts that have arisen over the years and presents a discussion of trends in employee privacy as a result of social media and the internet.
Paper High School
H.L.A. Hart's critique of strict legal positivism and modern moral overlap
HLA Hart and Modern Legal Positivism H.L.A. Hart is a famous legal thinker who examined Positivism and Utilitarianism. Hart is noted for thoughts that modernized the thinking of positivists and specifically utilitarians. The key concept of "Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals" is that sometimes law intersects with morality. For example, until people become like giant land crabs with shells that cannot be penetrated and who can get their food from the air and not be harmed by others, there must be laws against violence and setting basic property rights. Hart believes that those laws "intersect" with morality and every legal system has laws like that. Hart believes that the old positivists, who saw law that is completely separate from law that ought to be, were mistaken. Hart also specifically examined the Utilitarianism of Austin and Bentham. Austin and Bentham were both Utilitarians. They believed in no connection between the law that is and the law that ought to be and that it is only a coincidence if legal rights and moral rights are connected. At the same time: Austin believed that if a human law conflicts with divine law, then the human law is not really a law and does not need to be obeyed; Bentham believed the same thing but did not use God or the divine; he used utilitarian principles instead. Because they were Utilitarians, Austin and Bentham believed in a social philosophy of liberalism in law and government, reform, and control of power because even reformers might corrupt the law. Hart admired the simplicity of Austin and Bentham but disagreed with the severe way they separated the law that is from the law that ought to be. Hart says that sometimes there is an intersection between laws and morals. Hart also criticizes their belief that law is essentially a command from a sovereign that is habitually obeyed because they can command obedience but do not need to obey. Hart says that the law does not work that way: legislators do not hold office long enough to be habitually obeyed sovereigns; the laws passed by the legislature must still obey fundamental rules.
Paper Undergraduate
Ethical analysis of transplant care for undocumented immigrant children
The study is based on the ethical analysis of a scenario which developed during the Bush administration. The paper has described the ethical issues that emerged during that time and what ethical decision making was required to take in order to tackle that issue. The case that is chosen to conduct the ethical analysis is of New York State health officials. The federal government had ordered the hospital officials the chemotherapy which is covered by the federal government under a financial aid program is not applicable for the immigrants. This position taken by the federal government started a great battle between the state government and the federal government in terms of defining medical urgencies and emergencies. By critically analyzing the situation and the knowledge based on ethical theories, a solution to the ethical problem would be made.
Paper Undergraduate
Individuality and the social contract in American philosophy
The United States is a nation that has long existed in a balance between individual rights and a stable social order. But sometimes, individuality is the key to resisting the impulses of an unjust society. Using America's segregationist history as a backdrop, this discussion identifies the importance of individualism in achieving and ethical society.
Paper Undergraduate
Withdrawn job offer: legal obligation versus ethical responsibility
Ethical Challenge Scenarios in Healthcare Administration
Research Paper Doctorate
Comparing Islamic, common law, and civil law criminal justice systems
¶ … Islamic criminal justice system to the criminal justice Systems of the common Law and the Civil law