Thomistic ius naturalism of the twentieth century in the united states

Abstract

In this article, the authors present an overview of Thomistic ius natura- lism in the philosophical-juridical doctrine of the United States, from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. It is conceived as a wor- king tool for any student of contemporary natural law, a sort of "state of the art" on the matter. There are three clearly differentiated parts. In the first (paragraphs 1 to 7), which is the most extensive, a basic conceptual distinction is made between the tradition of natural law (Natural Law Tra- dition) and the tradition of natural rights (Natural Rights Tradition). Each of the most representative authors are examined, and the current debate between the “neoclassics” (Grisez, Finnis, George) and the "neoscholastics (Veatch, McInerny, Hittinger, Long, Jensen, etc.) is described. The second part (section 8) looks the congresses or periodic conferences that are now taking place in the United States to discuss issues related to natural law, while the third part (section 9) offers a selection of texts the authors of the article believe to be particularly relevant to North American ius naturalism in the twentieth century.