Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Natural law is said by proponents to consist of objectively true, immutable, universally binding principles and rules. Although natural law expired in juridical circles over a century ago, a revival is currently taking place among American jurists and scholars. This book provides a comprehensive explication and critical examination of natural law and natural rights, written in accessible prose with a wealth of original sources. Natural law emerged in ancient myths about divine law and was taken over by the Catholic Church. Upon the rediscovery of the Justinian Code in the medieval period, natural law was absorbed within Church canon law and by Western jurists, exerting positive and negative consequences. It played a formative role in the development of state legal systems and international law, justifying rights, doctrines, procedures, and rules, and influencing understandings about human rights. Natural law was also cited to support slavery, the subordination of women, the persecution of homosexuals, and Western imperialism, among other bad things. Natural law is not a single theory but a syncretic body of discourse containing many inconsistent theories. This book elaborates the positions of the major historical contributors to natural law and natural rights, explains how jurists used natural law and why it declined, and engages with contemporary theories of natural law to show why they are not true.</jats:p>