Abstract

This work is essentially an attempt to refute the theory of legal positivism, and at the same time to advance the author's own somewhat unique formulation of natural law theory. Though Juha-Pekka Rentto makes a comprehensive and almost eclectic use of authors as diverse as, for example, Thomas Aquinas and Lawrence Kohlberg, he seems determined to approach legal philosophy from the natural law tradition, while adding a few notable exceptions of his own. In his opinion, natural law theories which attempt to build a system on some one first principle ignore the practical importance of natural law. In fact, he will go on to say later that "rule-like principles are otiose in that they either are against the appropriate reasons for action, or they add nothing to them". His own via media involves an interesting twist on Finnis's theory of practical reason.