Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

The Influence of Natural Law tHeoryActs of Parliament that are impossible to be performed are of no validity;and if there arise out of them collaterally any absurd consequences, manifestlycontradictory to common reason, they are, with regard to thosecollateral consequences, void. I lay down the rule with these restrictions:I know it is generally laid down more largely, that acts of Parliamentcontrary to reason are void. But if the Parliament will positively enacta thing to be done which is unreasonable, I know of no power in theordinary forms of the Constitution that is bested with the authority tocontrol it. (Blackstone, 1771, Vol. V, p. 79)The English revolution established Parliament’s superiority, although,ironically, it was the superiority of natural law to man-made law and theauthority of the King, which provided the justification for the revolutionand the overthrow of the monarchy. The monarchy was reestablishedby the people when William and Mary were invited to rule by an act ofParliament. Since Parliament was an expression of the will of the peopleand the monarchy was now subservient to it, Englishmen felt that theirnatural rights would be protected by Parliament because Parliamentreflected the natural law that was the basis of the revolution.The colonists did not share this confidence in Parliament. Since theBritish Parliament did not represent them or the interests of the colonies,they did not share the Englishman’s belief in Parliament’s infallibility.Protesting laws they deemed unfair, the colonists repeatedly expressedthe contention that acts of Parliament, man-made laws, were not validif they violated natural law. When the attempt to reconcile their differenceswas not successful, an appeal to the rights granted under naturallaw formed the basis of the rationale for the colonies to break awayfrom their mother country. The Declaration of Independence written toKing George and adopted by the Second Continental Congress in 1776explained their actions to the rest of the world. (Maier, 1998, p. 20)Relying on Coke’s understanding of common law, the colonistsrejected the supremacy of Parliament and the authority of the King,and cited the grievances outlined in the Declaration of Independenceas justification for separation from the mother country.When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one peopleto dissolve the political bands which have connected them one withanother, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate andequal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s god entitle83