Research On The Natural Law Theory Of Pufendorf

The natural law theory has occupied an important position in the history of western law philosophy. Natural rights theory is the core of natural law theory from medieval times to modern times. Rights theory has experienced from sprout to the development. The natural rights theory gradually became people’s attention and concern. The justice as the core of natural law in the medieval times laid the foundation for the natural law theory. The ancient rights theory, which best matched the polios political system, was born as the result of natural rights theory. As the result of the development of the enlightenment and the birth of classical natural law school, by Grotius and Hobbes, the traditional natural law became the natural rights. The western modern natural rights as the core of natural law theory have developed to a new stage.Pufendorf’s theory of natural law and his rights theory inherited and developed the theory of Grotius and Hobbes. The natural rights theory made substantial changes and completed the natural law to the further shift of natural rights. First, he defined the boundaries of the natural law, making the natural law independent from the civil law and the divine law. Pufendorf did not agree Hobbes and Spinoza’s point of view on the state of nature. He thought that the state of nature was a state of peace. Because of this peace, it didn’t need agreement, so it was unreliable because the war could erupt at any time. As the natural state was full of contradictions and wars, people used the natural law as a guide to establish a barrier to resist the disaster through the two contracts and an act to establish a joints-nation of large number of people. The people, after the transition from natural state to state, were bounded to create suitable for the unification of the state existence and development of the rule of law, and the rule of law in his opinion must be based on the “moral entities”. Therefore, he put forward the famous “moral entities theory”, dividing the world into “moral entities” and “physics entities”. He thought that the “moral entities” were kinds of unique nature producing by the human behavior was set out to bring order to the life of people, and distinguished them through the related cause and freedom, value-free and value concerned, identity and diversity. Based on the “moral entities”, Pufendorf expounded his rights and obligations. He argued that rights were seen as a secondary phenomenon, because rights from the agreement and the agreement was the basic social obligation. Furthermore, he discussed the three rights which were conducive to peace in the social life of: property rights, self-defense, and reputation form people’s nature to self-love and sociality.Pufendorf’s theory of natural law determined the development of natural law in the following centuries. To some extent, the theory supported the independence of the colonies in North America. It led the natural law to develop to a further level and made the positive effect on Locke’s and Rousseau’s theory of rights.