Abstract

I DO NOT INTEND to present, in this paper, either a renewed account of the classical doctrine of natural law, or a modern version of its foundation in human nature. This does not mean that I consider superfluous or meaningless both these tasks. Indeed, I am convinced that the notion of natural law is still important for a full understanding of what we mean by "law." Natural law could be interpreted, for instance, as the transcendental condition of legal experience. And metaphysics--as the "ultimate knowledge of being," to put it in Edmund Husserl's terms--could prove that the being of man, analyzed in its structure, offers a convincing ontological foundation of the law.