Natural Law and Positive Law in Criminal Law

ABSTRACT: The essence of rights is the fact that they largely correspond to the surrounding nature and the way humans relate to it. In this sense, over the course of time, from antiquity to the present day, two major directions have been distinguished in which the law, in general and the laws in particular, must be thought about, interpreted and applied. One of the great currents of thought in law has its essence in the natural norms of nature and the environment of which we are also a part. The second one refers more to the applicative character of the law, in the sense that a legal norm must be thought of in the extent to which it produces its effects and not in one in which it prohibits their production. The problem that arises in criminal law is that of the prohibition of certain behaviors, being considered at the same time to be Positive Law. The article aims to treat, briefly, this issue by identifying the aspects that link criminal law to the two great currents of legal thought, showing through concrete examples what exactly this science has gathered from each of them. Some conclusions at the end of the paper will aim to unify all the information and synthesize the paper. KEYWORDS: natural law, criminal law, psychology, criminal act, positive law, Criminal Code, philosophy, constituent elements, social value