Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
10-2018
Abstract
This paper is directed at a deep investigation of Thomas Aquinas's position on the relationship between justice and legality, a perennial debate in legal philosophy - are unjust laws laws at all? Modern natural law theorists taking contradictory positions all claim to be faithful to Aquinas's ideas on the matter. Yet, they cannot all be correct. This paper aims to discern Aquinas's true position on the matter by undertaking a detailed study of Aquinas's Treatise on Law, the broader context of the Summa Theologiae within which the Treatise is situated, and Aquinas's methodological and definitional approaches.
Discipline
Law and Philosophy | Legal History | Public Law and Legal Theory
Research Areas
Legal Theory, Ethics and Legal Education
Publication
Journal Jurisprudence
Volume
37
First Page
238
Last Page
263
ISSN
1836-0955
Publisher
Elias Clark Group
Citation
CHNG, Wei Yao, Kenny.
An analysis of St. Thomas Aquinas’s position on the relationship between justice and legality. (2018). Journal Jurisprudence. 37, 238-263.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/2855
Copyright Owner and License
Author
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.