Ancient Greek philosophers were the first to elaborate a natural law doctrine. Heraclitus spoke in the 6th century BC of a common wisdom that pervades the whole universe, for all human laws are nourished by one, the divine. Aristotle distinguished between two kinds of justice: "A rule of justice is natural that has the same validity everywhere, and does not depend on our accepting it or not; a rule is legal [conventional] that in the …showed first 75 words of 467 total…

…showed last 75 words of 467 total…jurist John Austin. Jeremy Bentham was an outspoken advocate of law reform, who established political doctrines on things like natural law and contractarianism, also the first to produce a utilitarian justification for democracy. Mr. Bentham is also quoted to have said much on subjects as diverse as prison reform, religion, poor relief, international law, and animal welfare. Labeled as a visionary far ahead of his time, he advocated universal suffrage and the decriminalisation of homosexuality.