The Evolution of Legal Philosophy: From Augustinian Voluntarism to Scholastic Reason

Factors Shaping Medieval Legal Thought

The belief in the power of reason and the development of legal rights were influenced by several key factors:

• Philosophical factors contributing to the belief in the power of reason.
• Factors related to the system of legal sources (e.g., the role of lawyers).
• Institutional factors conducive to the pursuit and development of the "legal right."

Philosophical Factors

Legal Augustinianism and Voluntarism

During the High Middle Ages, until the emergence of Scholasticism, the theological and philosophical synthesis of St. Augustine was widely accepted. This resulted in legal Augustinianism, characterized by voluntarism.

For the Bishop of Hippo, the only source of law is the will of God, revealed partly by the Scriptures and expressed through the providential ordering of history.

Consequences of Augustinian Voluntarism

This perspective led to several significant consequences:

• The lack of an objective, natural legal order, where certain acts are inevitably forbidden and others necessarily allowed. St. Augustine only admitted the legitimacy of certain acts if they were inserted into an unfathomable divine plan of salvation, inaccessible to human reason.
• The impotence of reason to reach the criterion of justice, which is determined by the arbitrary will of God and cannot be achieved by human means.
• The acceptance of constituted authorities, who receive their authority from divine mandate. This involves the assumption of terrestrial positive law, as it possesses a rationale—a hidden meaning in the history of salvation.

Voluntarism, anti-rationalism, and positivism were the ingredients of Augustinianism that shaped the understanding of law in the early Middle Ages. The only legitimate activity of the jurist was humble and passive submission to the revealed law.

The Shift in Medieval Legal Thought

Medieval legal thought from the twelfth century onward was not concerned that solutions given to problems in one branch of knowledge might constitute a logical contradiction. It was interested in adapting solutions to the specifics of the problem at hand. Consequently, education and theoretical literature were not presented as systematically arranged exhibitions equipped with a logical architecture, but rather as collections of troubleshooting issues.

The Rise of Scholasticism and Reason

Reason became the "charter of freedom." The Augustinian theory of the sources of law was no longer acceptable.

For the Scholastics, primarily St. Thomas Aquinas, the law contained in Scripture (divine law) or dictated by kings (positive law) were not the critical elements needed to find the iustum (the just), which constituted the body of law (the law is what is right).

This iustum, or inherent right, was prior to positive law. It was inscribed in a natural order established by God, which humanity must obey. This order was disclosed by the right use of reason (recta ratio).