CHAPTER III
THE MATTER OF LAW
I. IT is the duty of the legislative authority to promote the common good by wise, just, and useful laws. It should apportion burdens according to the principles of distributive justice, so that they may not press unduly on the shoulders of particular classes and persons. Over-legislation should be avoided; something must be left to private initiative; individuals and families should be allowed as much freedom as is compatible with the public welfare. Even prohibitive legislation will be kept within the bounds of moderation in a well-ordered State; not all evils will be forbidden, but some even of the more serious breaches of the moral code will be tolerated by the State, lest by trying to force people to be good greater harm may ensue. What is conducive to the common weal will be the legislator's guide in the framing of laws. [1]
2. Human laws cannot be contrary to the divine law, from which they derive all their force and efficacy, so that a law which prescribes something morally wrong is no law at all, and cannot exert any binding force on the conscience. There is nothing to prevent human law prescribing or forbidding what is already of obligation or forbidden by the divine law. A parent is bound by natural, divine, and human law to bring up his children properly; theft is forbidden by human and divine law.
3. An obligation which is left indeterminate by the divine or natural law may be further determined by human law as to time, place, frequency, and other circumstances affecting the observance of it. And so the civil law determines at what age children attain their majority, and which near relatives are responsible for the support of the indigent poor; the Church, too, determines the limits of the impediment of consanguinity as affecting marriage, the times for the reception of the sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion, and many other obligations left indefinite by divine or natural law.
4. An act which in itself is indifferent may in certain circumstances become opposed to the public welfare, or on the
- ↑ St Thomas, i-z, q. 96, a. 3.
