Positive law

Positive laws (ius positum) are human-made laws that oblige or specify an action. Positive law also describes the establishment of specific rights for an individual or group. Etymologically, the name derives from the verb to posit. The concept of positive law is distinct from natural law, which comprises inherent rights, conferred not by act of legislation but by "God, nature, or reason." Positive law is also described as the law that applies at a certain time (present or past) and at a certain place, consisting of statutory law, and case law as far as it is binding. More specifically, positive law may be characterized as "law actually and specifically enacted or adopted by proper authority for the government of an organized jural society." Man-made law#Lex humana versus lex posita Thomas Aquinas conflated man-made law (lex humana) and positive law (lex posita or ius positivum). However, there is a subtle distinction between them. Whereas human-made law regards law from the position of its origins (i.e. who it was that posited it), positive law regards law from the position of its legitimacy. Positive law is law by the will of whoever made it, and thus there can equally be divine positive law as there is man-made positive law. Positive Law theory stems from the powers that have enacted it. This type of law is necessary as it is manmade or enacted by the state to protect the rights of the individuals, the governed, to resolve civil disputes and lastly to maintain order and safety in the society. More literally translated, lex posita is posited rather than positive law. In the Summa contra Gentiles Thomas himself writes of divine positive law where he says "Si autem lex sit divinitus posita, auctoritate divina dispensatio fieri potest (if the law be divinely given, dispensation can be granted by divine authority)" and "Lex autem a Deo posita est (But the Law was established by God)". Martin Luther also acknowledged the idea of divine positive law, as did Juan de Torquemada.