TELEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Fundamental point of view: the law is ordained for the achievement of the precepts of natural law (Righteousness, justice, fairness, and equity) in the legal order. The achievement or realization of these precepts is the telos or end of the law

Natural Law BasisThe teleological concept of law is based on the natural law philosophy. For the teleologists, natural law has a great deal more to do in shaping the concept of law than any other idea. This is based on their view that there is a very present bond or relationship existing between positive law and natural law. In other words, it is upon the precepts of the natural law that the completeness of the legal order can be achieved.

The Greek ConceptThe philosophers of ancient Greece felt the need for an unassailable starting point in the study of the nature of law. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle believed that good faith in dealing with one another is the condition of life in society. This means that human beings have a basic idea of the precepts of the natural law enabling them to distinguish between right and wrong and to discern between good and bad.

Thus S, P, and A found their unassailable starting point in the study of the nature of law in the moral nature and good faith of human beings.

Absolute Justice Socrates’ concept of justice:1. No person is intentionally bad or evil because of his

or her understanding of justice. For Socrates, the failure to do what is just and avoid what is unjust is really due to morbid physiological appetites, mistakes, or even bad company.

He drew a distinction between absolute knowledge of justice (episteme) and mere opinion of justice (doxa)

2. Only the temperate person knows himself or herself and, thus, able to bring his or her emotions under control.

He explained that in relation to the gods a temperate person will do what is virtuous and just, in relation to rights and obligations a temperate person will do what ought and avoid what ought not, and in relation to other persons

a temperate person will act properly, patiently enduring when necessary.

Rational JusticePlato: “there is a hierarchy of reality”; He drew a sharp dividing line between ideal reality and physical reality. Plato explained that apart from objects and entitites that are observable to the physical sense there exists another timeless dimensions of reality, which is concerned with other entitites. To this “other entitites”, Plato gave the name “ideas” and held that all objects and activities yielding to the physical senses are only representations of, or named after, certain “ideas” by virtue of their relationship to them.

The reality or idea of “justice” exists in the mind even though one does not see it done or performed in fact. Thus, Plato postied the concept of justice yielding to the rational mind. Rational justice is sufficient to enable human beings to attain their moral nature and good faith, keeping their self-respect by doing good and fulfilling their proper functions in the society.

Particular JusticeAristotle:

Denied Socrates’ concept of absolute justice as too exacting for it demanded the kind of moral excellence which is the culmination of all virtues.

Does not agree with Plato’s concept of rational justice because it was still a subjective virtue.

He taught his students the “sound sense” view of justice. For him, the concept of justice is nothing more pretentious than the virtue of epiekeia, that is to say justice which grows out of the sense of fair equality. In other words, justice is sound and sensible when, in light of events and circumstances, it is fair and equal.

In the thinking of Aristotle, the rigidity of the administration of justice, which is apparent in the jurisprudence of S and P, should be tempered with fair equality. On this basis, A differentiated between proportional justice and numerical justice.

Proportional justice – each person receives what she or he is entitled to on the basis of ability and achievement.

Numerical Justice- each person, regardless of station in life, counts for one and only one.

Law as the Product of Reason Related to Justice and EquityTo the Greek philosophers, the problem of the nature of a thing is not solved by analyzing its primitive state but more importantly its effective development, that is to say, its condition of actual fulfillment or complete realization. Thus, a thing is said to be in accord with, or realized in, its true nature when it is fully developed.

In the case of law, its fulfilled reality is found in the achievement of the precepts of the natural law in the legal order. To this end all persons are to conform their actions because such an end is part of the natural order of things.