Participants in the seminar "Approaches from Natural Law to Comparative Law". PHOTO: Manuel Castells.

The Institute of Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra held at the beginning of June the seminar "Approaches from Natural Law to Comparative Law", within its project Natural Law and Rationality internship. International experts in Philosophy and comparative law reflected on the relationship between the Western tradition of thought on natural law and the various religious and philosophical traditions. The results of three days of discussion will be published in the Journal of Comparative Law, edited by the British Michael Palmer, professor at the University of London.

The seminar brought to discussion common questions in the field of natural law such as the universal applicability of its principles (arguing that they are rooted in human nature); or a less explored dimension that asks whether - and how - one can admit, and even support, major cultural changes and ways of life.

Recently, a shift towards a deeper and more refined theoretical reflection, as well as a greater sensitivity to the diversity partner-juridical, could be observed in the research on these topics. Even so, the creation of a stable philosophical framework integrating the many existing theoretical and empirical contributions is still necessary. Therefore, one of the central purposes of seminar has been to explore the Degree in which the traditional theory of natural law can offer such a stable philosophical framework .