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positive law

American  

noun

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


Etymology

Origin of positive law

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"Natural" means without the enforcement of positive law, man-made law.

From New York Times • Jan. 12, 2015

“Freedom Riders” implicitly and ably conveys the powerlessness of positive law in the face of a toxic cultural emotionalism.

From New York Times • May 15, 2011

If valid, they place all persons within their reach under the obligation of positive law, binding equally those who assent and those who do not assent.

From Time Magazine Archive

The supreme law of every positive law is that it be not opposed to natural law: no law can impose on us a false duty, nor deprive us of a true right.

From Lectures on the true, the beautiful and the good by Cousin, Victor

Farther society cannot go, if it does not want to put an end to Moral law and do away altogether with positive law.

From Morals and the Evolution of Man by Nordau, Max Simon