Course description: Civil law in the Western tradition has acknowledged the existence of natural law and has incorporated its precepts into positive law in various ways over the centuries. Natural law has also influenced the American tradition from our founding to date. 

This course invites students to undertake legal, historical, and philosophical analyses. We will explore natural law in the American and Catholic traditions and consider the place of natural law in the decisions of courts and the deliberations of legislatures in contemporary America. We will address the institutional challenges of courts’ undertaking normative assessments of the content and application of natural law in a system of separated powers and popular sovereignty. 

The class will be taught from a Catholic perspective, but other and different views are welcome.

1 Credit