Ciceronianus

The fact I've said I think "Natural Law" is at worst a chimera, at best a misnomer, seems to me to indicate I've drawn a significant distinction betwe...

The belief that there are discernable, forever and everywhere applicable laws governing human conduct enshrined, as it were, in nature, is what I disp...

In determining whether, and stating whether, a law exists legal positivism makes no claims regarding whether it is right or just. Whether a law exists...

That would require an amendment to the Constitution which can only be made as set forth in Article V, and is no easy thing: The Congress, whenever two...

Changing the law is something controlling authorities may do, for the better or for the worse. Whether a choice to abide by them or violate them is av...

While I think Natural Law is at worst a chimera, at best a misnomer, I think that the more our judgments and decisions, including those regarding law,...

I prefer to think that we are a nation of lawyers, not men. But I'm being silly, and digress. I think the claim that we here in God's Favorite Country...

Damn. I was sure my children were family progressing devices I owned! Well, jointly with my spouse, I suppose, as I live in a community property juris...

I admire Cicero very much. I'm a Ciceronian, after all. But Cicero knew there was a difference between the laws of Rome and the laws of Nature, and wo...

Since I was a child, I've managed by observation and study of my interaction with the rest of the world and others of our kind, to learn and resign my...

Not at all. Legal positivism recognizes, as I would think others should because it seems apparent, that legal systems differ. Others may claim that th...

Alas, Cicero was a lawyer and an advocate, and though he was assiduous in justifying his legal arguments made in practice (carefully preparing written...

Only the Gospel of John portrays Jesus as claiming to be God. it's odd that the other Gospels did not. One would think their authors would have though...

That's one of the things I'm saying. I'm also saying that they exist regardless of whether they're moral, or wise, or conform to Natural Law, or the s...

There's no simple answer to this, but you seem to be seeking one. I'll try to provide a very broad, nonspecific and general definition as this seems t...

I find myself unable to accept the proposition that the law is whatever each of us thinks is not stupid, or not wrong.

I'm something of a fan of the Stoics. I think their views were influential in the development of Natural Law. I think their ethical views were premise...

As the Boss said in Cool Hand Luke: "What we have here is failure to communicate." I may be responsible for that, so I'll try to remedy it. I'm not su...

It's certainly true that some people won't take a hint. Let's try this. I don't know where you live. Is there a government there (or governments, as w...

Well, when you say you see your claims regarding the application of this higher law reflected in the American legal system, you might expect those cla...

I wonder why they wrote the Constitution if they thought it already existed. Why didn't they just rely on Natural Law to assure, for example, the righ...

What can I say? If you believe that something exists only when someone thinks it exists, you're welcome to think so.

I can't say I understand. If I say the law consists of statutes, regulations, adopted by and imposed by a sovereign and enforced through a recognized ...

I would hope I would never make such an awkward statement. Where did I do so? If you mean I think that there are laws, that's quite true. I deal with ...

higher law, unless you mean by this an existing, governing law, as when statutes or ordinances are found to be unconstitutional. I doubt you mean that...

I think you must be referring to some other Ciceronianus, unknown to me.

I don't think so. Laws may be adopted for various reasons, good or bad, moral or immoral. The reasons why they were adopted has nothing to do with the...

Legal positivism isn't a kind of legal system. Legal systems aren't positivist or not positivist. I suppose it's at least possible for a legal system ...

Of course it was the law. it was a law that the sheriff, the prosecutor, the juries and the judge believed shouldn't be the law, based on an "assumed ...

Sorry, but I don't know what you mean by "the law", if you don't mean "a law, or the law, but law in itself."

If by an "assumed standard" you mean something that is adopted by a state or sovereign to regulate conduct, is codified, is enforceable by the state o...

The law can and often should change. Once it is the law, though, it is the law regardless of its wisdom or morality. I agree.

These are judgments about the propriety of a law, made for rhetorical purposes. To say that a bad law is not a law is merely to say it shouldn't be a ...

Notice the distinction being made the (positive) law and "the moral law." The moral law involves the "illegally irrelevant" distinction between good a...

I'm reminded of an old SNL skit regarding Justice Kennedy, after it became known that he had smoked marijuana. In the skit, he was smoking weed with s...

It is to learned, intelligent, wise and reasonable people, yes. But there are distressingly few of us.

It may astound you to learn that in the decades I've practiced, I've been involved in several matters where environmental laws were at issue, and not ...

Keep in mind, though, that legal positivism/realism distinguish the law and justice. As Holmes once said to a lawyer appearing before him: "This is a ...

I like to think that philosophy has something to do with being reasonable, and I think being reasonable leads me, and should lead others, to consider ...

Don't know what you mean by "rationalizing." If you refer to seeking an explanation or justification of your existence, I don't think you examine your...

I wonder how applying this "law" allow us to understand what is being told to us, let alone be necessary for us to understand it? Perhaps it would be ...

Yes. The resulting ubiquity of misinformation and the encouragement and availability of immediate, emotional and thoughtless response to it has the re...

You know, I think "oompah oompah" must be German as well. I thought of linking to "Der Fuhrer's Face" but reconsidered. https://photovault.com/226756

The conflating what we imagine with what actually exists seems a problem, to me.

I referred to Sheehan because of his useful summary of the conduct of Heidegger as a Nazi during and after the rectorate, and because of his analysis ...

"Poor judgments" forsooth. "The Fuhrer alone is the present and future German reality and its law." Also sprach Heidegger. Something more than poor ju...

It seems you judge past ages after all, then. Is mass murder the only exception to your inclination not to judge those who lived in the past?

Well, we must in any case acknowledge that Heidegger was, unquestionably, a member of the Nazi party, from 1932 to 1945. I'm sure we can do that, at l...

He remained a member of the party until the end of the war in 1945, but perhaps you don't think being a member of the Nazi party constitutes support.

I confess I was being ironic.