positive law

American  

noun

1. customary law or law enacted by governmental authority (as distinguished fromnatural law ).

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Etymology

Origin of positive law

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

Compare meaning

How does positive-law compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• natural law vs. positive law

Example Sentences

At present, the Constitution says: “The state recognizes the family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law.”

From New York Times

Curtis further contended, with a long history to back it up, that slavery could exist only where “positive law” expressly sanctioned it.

From New York Times

“It allows states to respond, through the enactment of positive law, to the initiative of those who seek a voice in shaping the destiny of their own times without having to rely solely upon the political processes that control a remote central power.”

From Washington Times

The conflation of ‘natural law’ with ‘positive law’ handed communism a philosophical victory after the end of the Cold War.

From The Wall Street Journal

“The purity of public morals, the moral and physical development of both races, and the highest advancement of our cherished southern civilization, under which two distinct races are to work out and accomplish the destiny to which the Almighty has assigned them on this continent,” Christian wrote, “require that they should be kept distinct and separate, and that connections and alliances so unnatural that God and nature seem to forbid them, should be prohibited by positive law, and be subject to no evasion.”

From Washington Post