NATURAL LAW
Legal theory (and moral philosophy) of Lysander Spooner -- also called the Science of Justice -- wherein acts of coercion against individuals are considered "illegal" but the so-called criminal acts that violate only man-made legislation are not. According to Natural Law theory, an individual has a natural "right" to be free from coercion.
According to Spoonerian Natural Law, all legislation is itself illegal.
(Contrast with Philosophical Egoism.)
bkMarcus, A Brief Biography of Lysander Spooner
[bk]
In the controversy over man's nature, and over the broader and more controversial concept of "natural law," both sides have repeatedly proclaimed that natural law and theology are inextricably intertwined. As a result, many champions of natural law, in scientific or philosophic circles, have gravely weakened their case by implying that rational, philosophical methods alone cannot establish such law: that theological faith is necessary to maintain the concept. On the other hand, the opponents of natural law have gleefully agreed; since faith in the supernatural is deemed necessary to belief in natural law, the latter concept must be tossed out of scientific, secular discourse, and be consigned to the arcane sphere of the divine studies. In consequence, the idea of a natural law founded on reason and rational inquiry has been virtually lost.[2]
[2] And yet, Black's Law Dictionary defines the natural law in a purely rationalistic and non-theological manner:
Jus Naturale, the natural law, or law of nature; law, or legal principles, supposed to be discoverable by the light of nature or abstract reasoning, or to be taught by nature to all nations and men alike, or law supposed to govern men and peoples in a state of nature, i.e., in advance of organized governments or enacted laws (3rd ed., p. 1044).
Professor Patterson, in Jurisprudence: Men and Ideas of the Law (Brooklyn: Foundation Press, 1953), p. 333, defines the natural law cogently and concisely as:
Principles of human conduct that are discoverable by "reason" from the basic inclinations of human nature, and that are absolute, immutable and of universal validity for all times and places. This is the basic conception of scholastic natural law ... and most natural law philosophers.
Murray N. Rothbard,
The Ethics of Liberty,
"Natural Law and Reason"
[rothbard]