Normative and positive law

Normative law is the oldest code of law known to civilization. It is the deepest

roots of law based upon the same basic truths that govern all people everywhere. The

basic rules that govern the conduct of all human beings such as; killing a human being is

wrong as well as taking a person’s property or stealing is considered wrong anywhere

you go in the world. Lying is also looked down upon in most cultures. Normative law can

almost offer a certain amount of honor and security to those who follow it since it is held

in such high moral regard. It has shown to be effective in older simpler times but has also

shown to produce quite harsh enforcement policies and restrictions upon other human

activities that we take for granted but under normative law are forbidden.

A more modern school of law known as positive law is much more versatile and

shifting than normative law. Under the positivist view, law is merely there for our own

discretion. From society to society and culture to culture, normative law changes to

regulate its society and to protect and help achieve whatever its goals are under whatever