Leviathan · Chapter
Of Civil Laws explained
Hobbes examines the nature and authority of civil laws, arguing that they derive their force from the sovereign will and are intertwined with the law of Nature.
What happens
Hobbes examines the nature and authority of civil laws, arguing that they derive their force from the sovereign will and are intertwined with the law of Nature. He discusses the necessity of publishing laws, the distinction between written and unwritten laws, and the relationship between civil law and natural liberty. The chapter also addresses the classification of laws, including fundamental and non-fundamental laws, and clarifies the difference between 'right' (liberty) and 'law' (obligation).
Themes in this chapter
Sovereignty and Absolute Power
Hobbes asserts that all laws, written and unwritten, derive their authority from the sovereign will, and that the sovereign alone determines what is reasonable and what customs are to be abolished.
Liberty and Obligation
The chapter distinguishes between natural liberty (right) and civil law (obligation), explaining that law restrains natural liberty to achieve peace and mutual assistance.
Justice and Law
Hobbes discusses how the law of Nature (equity, justice) becomes actual law only within a commonwealth, and that civil law is a part of natural dictates.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“The law of Nature and the civil law, contain each other, and are of equal extent.”
Natural law and civil law are mutually inclusive and cover the same scope.
Hobbes argues that once a commonwealth is established, the laws of Nature become civil laws, and obedience to civil law is itself a natural law.
“For the legislator is he, not by whose authority the laws were first made, but by whose authority they now continue to be laws.”
The true maker of law is the current sovereign authority that keeps the law in force, not the original creator.
This emphasizes that the legitimacy of law depends on the present sovereign's will, not historical origin.
“For 'right' is 'liberty,' namely that liberty which the civil law leaves us: but 'civil law' is an 'obligation,' and takes from us the liberty which the law of Nature gave us.”
Right refers to the freedom remaining after civil law imposes obligations, while civil law itself restricts the natural liberty we originally had.
Hobbes clarifies the distinction between 'jus' (right/liberty) and 'lex' (law/obligation).