natural laws

natural law

The doctrine that human affairs should be governed by ethical principles that are part of the very nature of things and that can be understood by reason. The first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence contain a clear statement of the doctrine.

Main Entry: natural law
Function: noun
: a body of law or a specific principle of law that is held to be derived from nature and binding upon human society in the absence of or in addition to positive law
NOTE: While natural law, based on a notion of timeless order, does not receive as much credence as it did formerly, it was an important influence on the enumeration of natural rights by Thomas Jefferson and others.