Waldron, a professor of law at New York University and of political science at Oxford University, had previously delivered lectures on “The Crisis of International Law and the Strictures of Public Reason” and “Sovereigns, Borders, and Responsibility for the World.”
In this final lecture, Waldron argued against relying on natural law alone as a determinant of international policy. Natural law, or the theory of objective right and wrong inherent to human interactions, is a common tenet of Christian philosophy, and is defined in Christian terms as a moral code accessible by reason, without divine relevation, he explained.
Waldron did not contest the existence of natural law but rather its ability to stand alone as a guide for international policy. “Natural law is there,” Waldron explained. “It’s not going to go away; it’s ordained by God; it has been a source of order for centuries — but it cannot apply directly, as international law, without the mediation of treaty and custom.”
Waldron added that natural law “may be as objective as you like.”
To show this, he discussed Hobbes’ “Leviathan,” explaining that, while Hobbes said that envoys should be treated well during diplomacy, it is up to very specific legislation — which natural law cannot govern — to ensure that they are.
“The operation of law in the world depends on details,” Waldron said. “The details are all-important, and they are human work, not God’s work. The law relies on determination, on specification. Laymen complain that laws are won or lost on technicalities, but it’s a technical world we’re in.”
Waldron noted the consequent usefulness and value of positive law, which proposes that rights come from legislation and customs rather than human nature.
Essentially, Waldron argued, custom ought not be dismissed.
“There is nothing offensive to religion in acknowledging that human custom — finite, fallible, often sinful as it is, nevertheless emerging like scattered beacons of order amidst the sinful and chaotic practices of mankind — can sometimes be a sturdier basis, from the redemptive circumstances of its emergence: a holier source of law than the supposedly pure insights of the safe and admirable natural philosopher, closeted away from the world,” Waldron said.
He added that natural law must be derived from looking at the world and that moral philosophy should come from studying law, not the other way around.
Waldron also addressed the connotations treaties often have in view of some Christian philosophy — that they are a “low-rent form of normativity” — citing numerous historical sources including the Old Testament and the Aeneid to support the idea that treaties are and have always been a sacred form of interaction.
He concluded the talk by discussing the limits of natural law, where written legislation is not entirely in accordance with morals. This “middle area,” Waldron explained, needs further discussion and exploration.
Kijan Bloomfield GS, who attended the lecture, said after the talk that she had really enjoyed it.
“I hadn’t gone to the previous two lectures but I still found this talk engaging and relevant, especially in view of the recent nuclear crisis in Japan and the ‘middle ground’ we may have found ourselves in with legislating nuclear power,” she said. “The talk seemed like it would resonate not just with people of faith but with people of ethics in general.”
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