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Atticus Finch As A Positive Law

Decent Essays

Does Atticus Finch demonstrate the virtues of natural law or positive law theories?
Riyaadh Amanjee
201202174

This essay begins with an outline of natural law and positive law. It then goes on to analyse whether Atticus Finch demonstrates values of positive or natural law. This analysis is achieved examining the virtues, behaviour and characteristics of Atticus Finch, the appropriate theory of law and the criticism which it has received. The essay then concludes by ??????
Legal positivism is generally based on the principle that Law and morality is distinct and that the validity of a rule depends more on its sources, while Natural law would be more inclined to favour features of reasonableness and the link between morality and law. There are two predominant groups of legal theorists being, Natural law theorists and Positive law theorists, John Austin and HLA Hart …show more content…

Atticus displays these characteristics of positive morals, dignity and fairness by defending rape accused Tom Robinson and trying to provide him with a credible defence against the wishes and social norms of the community, however Atticus Finch abided by the social norms of the community while livingin a racially segregated community, carrying on with his day to day life in such a community, while using “white only” parks and white only buses without directly challenging the racist legal system and Atticus Finch did not dispute the fact that Tom Robinson is tried before an all-white jury and that it was fairly reasonable to assume that they would convict him of rape as a predetermined outcome on the mere fact that he was a black man and she was a white

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