自然法(natural law)
在科学哲学中，指的是普遍性的陈述，此一陈述对自然事件的过程，加以描述并且解释、或着在描述与解释择其一（比如说牛顿运动定律）；在法理学和政治哲学中，这是指共通於全部人类的权利与正义的体系，此一体系是从自然，而非社会的规则，或实证法中，所推衍出来。这个概念能够追溯到亚里斯多德，他认为，「自然上是正当的」并不总是都等同於「法律上是正当的」。斯多噶派（参阅Stoicism）、西塞罗、罗马法的法学者、圣保罗、圣奥古斯丁、格拉提安、圣托马斯.阿奎那、邓斯.司各脱、奥坎和苏亚雷斯等人，也都以某种形式主张自然法则的存在。在现代时期，格劳秀斯和霍布斯则从「自然状态」（state of nature）加以演绎，构告出自然法的体系，而继之以社会契约论。洛克则将自然状态描述为社会奠基於自然法的状态。卢梭则假定，孤立的野蛮人善良有德，并且受到生物自我保存之本能与同情心的激励。「独立宣言」则在引用平等以及其他「不可让度的」权利为「不证自明」之前，只简短述及「自然的律则」。法国的「人权和公民权利宣言」则主张，自由、财产权、安全以及对抗压迫，是「法令所不能更动的自然权利」。
English version：
natural law
In philosophy of science, a universal statement that describes and/or explains the course of natural events (e.g., Newton's laws of motion); in jurisprudence and political philosophy, a system of right or justice common to all humankind and derived from nature rather than from the rules of society, or positive law. This concept can be traced back to Aristotle, who held that what was “just by nature” was not always the same as what was “just by law.” In one form or another, the existence of natural law was asserted by the Stoics (see Stoicism), Cicero, the Roman jurists, St. Paul, St. Augustine, Gratian, Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, and Francisco Suarez. In the modern period, Hugo Grotius and Thomas Hobbes constructed a system of natural law by deduction from a “state of nature” followed by a social contract. John Locke described the state of nature as a state of society based on natural law. J.-J. Rousseau postulated a savage who was virtuous in isolation and actuated by self-preservation and compassion. The Declaration of Independence refers only briefly to “the Laws of Nature” before citing equality and other “unalienable” rights as “self-evident.” The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen asserts liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression as “imprescriptible natural rights.”.