The Rights of Man and Natural Law

by Jacques Maritain · Les droits de l'homme et la loi naturelle

Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only

Written
1942
Language
French
Length
Short · 120 ppunder 120 pages
Difficulty
Moderate2 of 5 for a first-year reader

We recommendThe Rights of Man and Natural Law, translated by Doris C. AnsonIgnatius Press, 2011A reprint of the 1943 English translation made during the war.

These links go straight to Amazon and Bookshop.org and earn this site nothing today. Prices are the same either way. How this works.

A wartime essay, written in New York in 1942, that grounds human rights in the natural law tradition. The first part distinguishes the human person from the individual and argues that society exists for the person and the person is ordered to the common good. The second part derives the rights of the person, the civic person and the working person from natural law. The book influenced the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on which Maritain worked for UNESCO.

No reading guide yet

The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns The Rights of Man and Natural Law are verified against each program's published list.

What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.

Browse the 48 works that do have a guide →

Les droits de l'homme et la loi naturelle, Les droits de l'homme et la loi naturelle, natural law, human person, common good, personalism, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UNESCO