Law and Aquinas's Metaphysics

U of Alabama lawprof William Brewbaker posts this on SSRN:

"Thomas Aquinas and the Metaphysics of Law"

I argue in the paper that [Aquinas's] Treatise [on Law] cannot be fully understood absent a focus on Thomas' metaphysics and that, indeed, Thomas' metaphysical approach raises important questions for contemporary legal theory. . . .  [Among other things,] attention to Thomas' hierarchical view of reality exposes tensions between Thomas' top-down account of law and his sophisticated bottom-up observations. For example, Thomas grounds human law's authority in its foundation in the higher natural and eternal laws. On the other hand, he is well aware that many if not most legal questions involve determination of particulars - the resolution of questions that might reasonably be answered in more than one way. I argue that his metaphysics sometimes works against Thomas' inclination to give place to human freedom in the creation of law.

Tom