On the occasion of the feast of the patron saint of Canon Law, St. Raymond of Peñafort, the School organized an Academic workshop which consisted of a lecture on "Human Rights and Natural Law", which ran to position of Full Professor of Ecclesiastical Law of the State, José María Vázquez García-Peñuela, President of the International University of La Rioja since 2009 and former student of the School. He holds a doctorate in Law and in Canon Law; his speeches thesis were directed by Mr. Carmelo de Diego-Lora, Full Professor emeritus of the School, for whom the speaker had an emotional memory.

He began by stating that the appeal to human dignity is relatively recent, both in international institutions and in those of comparative international law; the reason for this was the shock that the Second World War represented for humanity. Dignity is inherent to the human person and noted how the word "inherent" sample that "our language is rich in capturing nuances of metaphysical scope".

He explained how despite the fact that law and natural law are among the main themes of the Philosophy of Law, natural law has been denied on the basis of different positions. He clarified that it is not appropriate to unite the iusnaturalist exclusively to the religious sphere and stated that before the appearance of Christianity -the Stoics, among others- natural law was already mentioned, although it is true that "in the last decades the Catholic Church has been the only written request that has appealed to its existence when defending it". The disparity of visions of natural law does not lead to the conclusion that it does not exist. The same could be expected of "man" or "freedom". And this fact does not lead one to think that man does not exist, or that he lacks freedom. "It is easy to see that no other topic of the Philosophy of Law arouses so much interest outside the cultivators of the field of knowledge: there is a written request that dictates the duties that concern people," he said.
 

Modern view of natural law

José María Vázquez argued that the classical Thomistic vision assumes that man is a being endowed with reason, which tells him how to act in order to achieve his ends. "If I wish to have a good relationship with my neighbor, I should greet him with Education at portal", he exemplified. However, the so-called "naturalistic fallacy" usually wields Hume's law. This fallacy is committed by those who, with the objective data offered by nature, deduce obligations, i.e. moral guidelines. The Full Professor quoted the theologian Ángel Rodríguez Luño who affirms that from mere facts no norms can be extracted from any class, but that reality can be reduced to mere facts is something unreal. Common moral experience tells us that it is very real that people feel obliged by the promises they make. Or how from friendships, for example, obligations are derived.

Finally, he argued that natural law is distinguishable from natural law. The former and positive law "are part of each legal system or order; there is no overlapping between them because they do not relate or concur. Natural law is the natural part of the legal system," he concluded. José María Vázquez does not rule out that in time human rights not yet perceived as such may be formulated, "because in the future we find new facts or situations; an example can be found in the advances of medical sciences".