ABSTRACT
The idea that there are universal human rights was expressed by its early defenders – notably by John Locke in his Second Treatise of Government – in another way. According to Locke there are “natural” rights – rights that attach to individuals by virtue of their “nature” as human beings, and independently of any man-made “convention.” The distinction between nature and convention was a cornerstone of the Stoic philosophy of ancient Athens, and an important input into Roman jurisprudence. The Roman jurists distinguished the ius naturale or natural law, whose force derives from human nature and which is therefore recognized as binding by all people everywhere, from the ius civile or civil law, which summarizes the rights and duties conferred by Roman jurisdiction on the citizen. The idea of a “natural law” thereafter entered the thinking of philosophers and theologians, to become a standing justifi cation offered by bishops for ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and for the right of the Church to adjudicate confl icts between sovereigns.
