nature and law

Abstract

The relationship between nature and law has developed historically with the understanding of nature and with the forms of law. This article will show why and how nature and law are related to each other and how they are practically related to and differentiated from each other in human history. This will be sketched out in sequence by discussion of the relationship of law to the natural cosmos of antiquity, to the divine natural order of the Middle Ages, to the modern self-conscious intervention of human beings in the natural order, and to the modern rendering of nature wholly utilisable. The article cannot claim to be complete; instead it is intended to highlight a common thread of the systematic development of concepts in their historicity, using exemplary authors and problems.