A Study Of The Classical Natural Law School's Thoughts On Rights

This dissertation is to investigate Classical Natural Law School's thoughts on rights. In effect, Classical Natural Law School has generated many important thoughts and theories. The author is to thread them along the line of the scholar's elucidation on rights and ultimately to work out a chronicle of the Classical Natural Law School's reflection on thoughts. Through the meticulous research on the School's thoughts on rights, the author may claim that, though opinion and thoughts concerning the rights did vary among the members of the School, the School's leading exponents generally tried to utilize the widely acceptable and meaningful theoretical paradigms to systematically illuminate various phenomenon of rights and to justify the concept and existence of rights.This dissertation contains three parts: the introduction, the main body and the conclusion. And the main body is further composed of five chapters: Historical Origins and Academic Background of the Classical Natural Law School and Establishment of the School's Thoughts on Rights; Natural Rights Concept Based on Immanent Human Nature; From Natural Rights to Citizen's Rights: Rights from the Perspective of Social Contact Theory; Theoretical Reflection on Rights at State and Society Level; and Comprehensive Reflection on Classical Natural Law School's Thoughts on Rights.The Introduction is to clarify that, according to the formation and development of the natural law philosophy, the concepts and discourse concerning the rights in the western society mainly stem from the natural law philosophy. As for the theoretical schools of the natural law philosophy, it is the Classical Natural Law School who, for the first time, elucidates the thoughts on rights in a comprehensive and systematic way. A research into the Classical Natural Law School's thoughts on rights may contribute to an explicit comprehension the tradition and academic objective of the natural law philosophy.Chapter One is to analyze the theoretical origin and social background of the Classical Natural Law School and to subsequently state that the thoughts on rights constitute the theoretical core of this School. Viewed from the development of the natural law philosophy, the Classical Natural Law School differs greatly from those antecedent natural law theories. As the Classical Natural Law School has incorporated into its framework the humanism and natural sciences, this School has gradually grown into a secular theory focusing on thoughts of rights. The Classical Natural Law School's thoughts on rights may be illuminated from three facets: first, the natural rights concept; second, the social contract theory and the relevance of its thoughts on rights; third, its comprehension and interpretation of the state-level and society-level rights. The abovementioned three facets are inherently inter-related with one another in their theoretical logic.Chapter Two focuses on the natural rights concept of the Classical Natural Law School. Generally speaking, the justification of natural rights by the Classical Natural Law School traces its theoretical fountain to the presupposed"natural position". During the justification, the natural position, natural law and natural rights have been synthesized into a kernel category for all theories of the Classical Natural Law School. And the consequent finding has been that the natural rights are the rights originated from the immanent human nature. The Classical Natural Law School has further presented several specific natural rights such as the right of life, liberty and the property right. From these specific rights, it is to be safely concluded that the natural rights concept has fully expressed the spirit of humanism and individualism.Chapter Three clarifies the relevance between the Social Contract Theory and the Classical Natural Law School's thoughts on rights through an elucidation of the former. The focus is on the explanation of rights made by the social contract theory. According to the social contract theory, the fundamental cause of social contract is to maintain and safeguard people's natural rights. And the rational thinking mechanism further drives people to enter into the social contract in a reasonable way which calls for a consensus for all social contract clauses. Once the social contract was made, the people would go beyond their natural position to a political society. And the nations subsequently come into being. The explanation of rights made by the social compact theory is mainly found in the following area: the cause of making social contract, the process of making social compact, the rights subrogation, and the transformation of natural rights to citizen's rights. The analysis on the rights concept held by the social contract theory gives prominence to the theoretical value of this theory in studying the rights. The theoretical value expresses itself mainly from three perspectives: first, ascertain the justification of rights from a social dimension; second, attest to the unity of opposites between rights and obligations; third, validate the priority of natural rights over the state and public power. It can be said that the Classical Natural Law School's thoughts on rights have been further developed and consummated in the social contract theory.Chapter Four focuses on the theoretical reflection on the state-level and society-level rights by the Classical Natural Law School. According to the routes taken by different scholars within the Classical Natural Law School in analyzing the governing form, the School's theory may be categorized into two doctrines: the absolutism state authority doctrine and the restrictive state authority doctrine. The former claims that the power of the state authority should be absolute. And all rights and obligations of the citizen shall be established on the absolute power of the authority. The authority with its absolute power may assure the effective performance of the citizen's rights and rational allocation of the obligations. Thus coordinate different social interests. However, this doctrine has been frequently kidnapped by the totalitarianism as the latter's theoretical tool. As a result, the citizen's rights can in no way be maintained and safeguarded. In contrast to the absolutism state authority doctrine, the restrictive state authority doctrine suggests to maintain and safeguard the citizen's rights through restricting the state and the government authority. It further puts forward two principles for the restriction: first, the principle of limited government which reflects the restriction of the citizen's rights on the state power; second, the principle of separation of powers and checks which emphasizes the checks among different state power branches. The two principles all request that the state power should be rightly performed and reasonably restricted with an aim to maintain and safeguard the citizen's rights.Chapter Five focuses on the criticism made by different theories on the Classical Natural Law School's thoughts on rights. The author is to reflect on the criticism and further conclude the theoretical value and realistic significance of the Classical Natural Law School's thoughts on rights. The criticism on the Classical Natural Law School's thoughts on rights is mainly made by the utilitarianism and the Marxism who respectively criticizes the natural rights concept and the social contract theory of the Classical Natural Law School and presents their own opinions on rights. Although the Classical Natural Law School's thoughts on rights are imbedded with drawbacks, the theory still has its unique theoretical value and realistic significance. From the perspective of theoretical value, the School's thoughts on rights have established the standard of right, preliminarily defined the right, and clarified the unity of opposites between rights and obligations. In reality, the School's thoughts on rights have provided theoretical base for the construction of democratic constitutional system in many nations. Meanwhile, the thoughts have also given rise to and developed people's consciousness of citizen.The Conclusion reflects on the argumentation made by the Classical Natural Law School in justifying the rights concept and the existence of rights. The author claims that the belief in rights shall never be extinguished.