The acceleration of history and the increasingly rapid advancement of the postmodern project, aimed at the transcendence of humanity by itself, makes consideration of the fundamentals of the progressive project necessary, but also inevitable. Among them is its dedication to the hectic search for hitherto unsuspected “human rights” and their instant realization in the name of “natural law,” a subject the French historian and political philosopher Pierre Manent has studied in depth and brilliantly illuminated in a number of works, most recently Natural Law and Human Rights: Toward a Recovery of Practical Reason.

“Man,” he says, “is the being who possesses rights, and to live humanly is to assert one’s rights… Rights and self-interest are the two principles that allow for the ordering of the human world without recourse to law as the rule and measure of action” – absent, however, any regard for practical reason as the proper context for action. The result is political paralysis, a perfect example being the British government under Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who, as Prime Minister, is attempting to rule his country by “fleeing from the law,” as Manent would say, insofar as it is based in natural law.

‘How can a law that cannot, finally, be enforced in practice by anyone be fairly described as law at all?’

‘How can a law that cannot, finally, be enforced in practice by anyone be fairly described as law at all?’

This explains his unwillingness to defend his country against invasion by the Third World “migrants” from across the English Channel and his refusal to commit it to the current war........

© The Spectator