What is it about?
Sophocles’ Antigone is famously known for Antigone’s claim that an unwritten Higher Law supersedes the King's decree. Yet Antigone never defends that claim, and after she is accused of acting autonomously, she abandons the Higher Law and appeals instead to a law she has made for herself.
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Why is it important?
Legal scholars have recognized that we are having a "natural law moment" — a revival of interest in natural law theory and its use in advocacy and adjudication. This article explores the danger that appeals to Higher Law in adjudication may encourage claims based instead in autonomy, amounting to “Higher Lawlessness.”
Perspectives
As a believer in, and proponent of, Higher Law, I have been disappointed in many of the popular and academic explanations of natural law, which neglect to justify that theory or acknowledge its potential for misuse. I found in Antigone an intriguing and unique exemplar to address the twin dangers of unjustified claims of Higher Law and self-determined law, which may lead to what I call "Higher Lawlessness."
Andrew DeLoach
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Antigone
, Autonomy, and Higher Lawlessness, Law Culture and the Humanities, June 2026, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/17438721261457346.
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