Abstract

The metaphysical problem of evil concerns how to reconcile God's existence with the existence of evil. This paper explores a similar question: the so-called jurisprudential problem of evil or what might be called “Theist’s Legal Paradox.” The paradox implies the problem of reconciling the (legal) theist doctrine that God’s natural law is the ultimate basis of a law’s validity with the apparent existence of evil laws throughout history (e.g., the anti-Jewish laws of Nazi Germany). The paradox is a cause of concern in a Roman Catholic country like the Philippines, where Church doctrine has profoundly influenced natural law jurisprudence for decades. This chapter examines two theistic solutions to the paradox: (i) the Augustine-Radbruch-Alexy formula and (ii) the Aquinas-Finnis central case solution. The former claims that laws that breach an intolerable degree of injustice lose their status as law; the latter that unjust law is a perverted, corrupted, and peripheral law. As argued later, these solutions fail to resolve the paradox; hence a theist must reject the classical view in favor of some other perspective, e.g., contemporary natural law theory or legal positivism.