Magna Carta and the Law of Nature
My subject is an appropriate one for a lecture series established by Brendan F. Brown. From first to last, he was "an advocate and defender of the natural law and its school of jurisprudence." He sparked an interest in the subject among his students, he wrote books and articles to demonstrate its value, and he compiled an historical survey of the subject that remains useful today. Coming to his scholarly maturity in the years immediately following the Second World War, Professor Brown was optimistic about the future of this subject. The leaders of Nazi Germany were being put on trial for the commission of crimes against humanity, crimes that were widely believed to be condemned by natural law. With apparent confidence, he was able to predict a revival in the recognition of natural law within modern law and jurisprudence. Not coincidentally with the