Legal naturalism

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Legal naturalism is a term coined by Olufemi Taiwo to describe a current in the social philosophy of Karl Marx which can be interpreted as one of natural law. Taiwo considered it the manifestation of Natural Law in a dialectical materialist context. The concept recognizes the existence of legal priorities or principles, which form an intrinsic part of an economic system.^[1]

Taiwo distinguished legal naturalism from Marxism by faulting the latter's bifurcation of the canon between the economic "substructure" of a society and the humanitarian, moral, cultural "superstructure".^[2] However, he acknowledged that legal naturalism is, ultimately, "a novel synthesis of the Marxist theory with the natural law theory".^[2] According to Taiwo, legal naturalism is both natural law and positive law, constituting a duality of legal existence.^[3] The theory is distinctive from other theories under naturalism in the sense that it views natural law as part of social formation or mode of production.^[3]

A related concept to legal naturalism is iusnaturalism, which holds that the ideas of nature and divinity or reason validate natural and positive laws.^[4]

• Marxism
• Legal positivism
• Natural law

• Legal Naturalism: A Marxist Theory of Law (Olufemi Taiwo, Cornell University Press, 1996) ISBN 0-8014-2851-3

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