Understanding Law: The Different Schools of Thought

Even though there may be times when we are definitely not aware of it, at a nearly constant pace, the law and the legal environment in which we live in playing a major role in the way that we live our lives and the way that we experience what is around us. However, while it would be very difficult to argue that the law is not an important part of every day life, it would be slightly easier to make the point that finding out proper information about the law and legal issues (besides from popular television shows) can sometimes be a very difficult thing indeed. Despite the difficulty, though, it is very important to learn about the law and the many legal principles that guide our court systems and our lives today. With that in mind, one of the most important starting points is definitely understanding the many different legal schools of thought that have shaped our current system today.

Depending on our own unique philosophies of law, the way that we determine and view different principles and different cases in real life can be incredibly different. This is also an important concept to keep in mind when we wonder how a judge or jury could make a decision. Often times, they may simply be operating under a different school of law than we are familiar with.

One of the first, and oldest schools of law and legal thought is known as the "Natural Law School". Although Natural Law was first credited to Aristotle, there are still many applications of the theory in today's world. According the natural law philosophy, there is a separation between the laws of a nation and the laws that apply to human beings and rational people as a whole. These laws would be inherent in human nature, and would thus come before the laws of a nation or other entity. For the sake of simplicity, we can think of natural law being somewhat represented by our Bill of Rights, they are laws which are not specific to a single nation or city, but rather applied universally to people across the world.