Cicero on Natural Law and the Laws of the State

Classical Antiquity 27 (1):1-33 (2008)
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Abstract

This paper treats the relationship between natural law and Cicero's code of laws, as presented in Cicero's work On Laws. In response to recent interpretations, it argues that Cicero's code is not identical with natural law. Instead, his laws participate imperfectly in the commands and prohibitions of natural law. Just as Cicero uses a Stoic conception of natural law, so he uses a specifically Stoic view of participation in natural law. His laws share imperfectly in the guiding power of natural law by prescribing intermediate duties as a means to the attainment of virtue. Overall, Cicero's code of laws prefigures modern written constitutions in the attempt to found the basic laws of a state on an unchanging moral norm

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10.1525/ca.2008.27.1.1

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References found in this work

Ethics and human action in early Stoicism.Brad Inwood - 1985 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The Stoic idea of the city.Malcolm Schofield - 1991 - Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ethics and Human Action in Early Stoicism.Brad Inwood - 1985 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 179 (3):367-368.
Ethics and Human Action in Early Stoicism.Brad Inwood - 1985 - Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 42 (1):147-150.
Ethics and Human Action in Early Stoicism.Brad Inwood - 1985 - Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 50 (3):543-545.

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