THE NATURAL LAW IN DECRETUM GRATIANI

Abstract

Written in the twelfth century by the monk Gratian, the work Concordia Discordantium Canonum, known as Decretum Gratiani, was until the beginning of the twentieth century the reference for canon law and for the understanding of medieval and modern legal-philosophical thought derived from it. Emerged after the Gregorian reform, it will present the law divided between law/natural law and custom, human law. Exposing Graciano's theory of natural law, this work also points out how the Bolognese jurist will relate natural law to the golden rule, or regula dilectionis proximi. By linking the natural law to the golden maxim, Graciano inserts himself as a continuator of a tradition originated from the Greco-Roman philosophy, embraced by the patristic and developed by the scholastics.