The Concept of Natural Law in the Works of Jacques Maritain and Its Connection with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

This study examines the thought of the prominent French philosopher of the 20th century Jacques Maritain, whose legacy remains relevant nowadays. Most of his philosophical work took place in the first half of the 20th century and was influenced by the World Wars, the struggle of the Catholic Church against secular intellectual movements, and the increasing attention to human rights. Maritain's thought covered many issues in the field of moral philosophy, political philosophy, and even metaphysics. The French philosopher was a consistent follower of the ideas of the most famous medieval thinker Thomas Aquinas, and he is famous in the historiography as Neo-Thomist. Natural law and Maritain’s aspiration to solve the practical problems of his time are essential in his thought. In common sense, the natural law is the form of the law, which emanates from the very nature of the Man and stands above all the other forms of human law. In theology, it originates from the Eternal law of God. This concept went through many historical stages from the Antiquity, the thought of Aristotle and Cicero, to the Middle Ages, the thought of Thomas Aquinas, then to the Enlightenment, in the works of Hobbs, Kant and Rousseau, and eventually to the 20th century in various schools. The revival of natural law in the 20th century also led to development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was accepted on 10 December 1948 and supported by 48 nations. The Declaration itself was in response to the two World Wars, where human rights in many fields were impended upon in favor of ideologies. This study reveals the contribution of Maritain in the development of the Declaration and the correlation of his ideas to the content of the document. It is a crucial step to reevaluate the meaning of Jacques Maritain and his philosophy.