The Decline of Natural Law: How American Lawyers Once Used Natural Law and Why They Stopped.

• Date: 01 September 2022
• Author: Tindall, Ryan

The Decline of Natural Law: How American Lawyers Once Used Natural Law and Why They Stopped

By Stuart Banner

Reviewed by Ryan Tindall

"We hold these truths to be self-evident..." is not how one would begin an argument in a courtroom these days. Nevertheless, thus begins the Declaration of Independence, appealing to the "laws of Nature and Nature's God." Its advocates could claim legal vindication--not just vindication on the field at Yorktown. What changed? Stuart Banner's recent legal history, The Decline of Natural Law, sets out to answer that question.

Banner's history begins before the change, describing a legal system based on natural law. Common law judges were not tasked with interpreting or making the law, as...