HKB
1 passages · search this phrase →
Often appears with: unjust laws · rights and liberties · equity, mercy, and pardon · conscience · common good
Usually: argument (1) · detachment (1)
“a law that is not just, seems to be no law at all.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) · insight
Aquinas continues by holding that human laws bind in conscience when they are just—aiming at the common good, proportioning burdens, and not exceeding the lawgiver’s power—while unjust laws bind only to avoid scandal.
Whether Human Law Binds a Man in Conscience? Objection 1: It would seem that human law does not bind man in conscience. For an inferior power has no jurisdiction in a court of higher power. But the power of man, which frames human law, is beneath the Divine power. Therefore human law cannot impose its precept in a Divine court, such as is the court of conscience. Obj. 2: Further, the judgment of conscience depends …