Law without a Lawgiver: Legal Authority after Sovereignty

This paper defines a 'crisis of sovereignty' in relation to the status of legal authority without the nationstate as an ultimate referent. Based on an analysis of a debate between two influential strands of legal theory known as legal positivism and natural law, it suggests one current form of response is a renewal in natural law theory, which de-emphasises theological concepts in favour of the idea of the common good of a political community. Through reference to the Aristotelian concepts of politics and nature that are often invoked in these theories, the paper argues that the concept of law in new natural accounts, while manifestly founded on rational principles, still retains a theological core.