Anna Lukina (London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)) has posted Evil Law in St. Thomas Aquinas’s Philosophy on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
In this paper, I argue that St. Thomas Aquinas’s account of evil as privation holds a key to understanding the nature of extremely morally iniquitous (or ‘evil’) law of the kind found in regimes such as Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under Stalin. I aim to present the Thomistic account of evil as valuable across philosophical divides, both in our understanding of evil law and our fight against it. Firstly, I clarify the relationship between different ways in which the concept of evil can be framed, from the broad concept of malum to a narrower one of iniustia to the most specific of extreme moral iniquity central to my concept of evil law, arguing that Aquinas’s remarks apply to all. Secondly, I identify two propositions about evil presented by Aquinas-that good is metaphysically prior to evil (the Primacy Thesis) and that good causes evil in that the latter would not exist but for the former (the Causality Thesis). Thirdly, and most extensively, I apply these propositions to evil law, arguing that it could be beneficial both descriptively and normatively. On the Primacy Thesis, I claim that while one may say that evil law is law proper contra Aquinas, they would agree that it is nevertheless parasitic on good law in that the former cannot exist without the latter. On the Causality Thesis, I argue that the very legal form, through providing coercive and coordinative powers, is inherently risky as it can be misused by evil regimes for their aims. Of course, not all of these conclusions are in complete congruence with Aquinas’s thought-yet, nevertheless, they show that we can gain a lot by studying his theological writings.
Very interesting and recommended.