FORUM PRESENTATION MORAL FOUNDATIONS AND NATURAL LAW By Alexander V. Konovalov Author PhD (Law), St. Petersburg State University, 1999 Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation Abstract The author studies the origins and the evolution of the approaches towards understanding natural law, as well as its infl uence upon the contents of positive law. <...> Based upon the analysis of various concepts of natural law, the author draws a conclusion that there is a set of objective principles of the human society allowing the most comfortable, dynamic and harmonious development of the society and its members. <...> This is why the alloy of the most important matters has taken the shape of the system of legal principles. <...> Based upon the above-stated positions, the author considers that the legal principles represent the objective natural law. <...> Not only the state and the dynamics of the particular society’s law system but also the progress and the regress of the Volume 2 October 2015 Issue 2(4) www.kulawr.ru 264 KUTAFIN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW society depend on how well the legal principles are embodied in law, law enforcement and in people’s everyday legal activity. <...> The author analyzes causes and stages of possible defi ciencies in the implementation of the legal principles. <...> Special attention is paid to the factors and manifestations of the departure from such principles in the modern society. <...> Keywords Natural law, foundations of law, principles of law, positive law, philosophy of law DOI: 10.17803/2313-5395.2015.2.4.263-269 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Conceptual foundations of natural and positive law: evolution and mutual influence .264 II. <...> Legal principles and modern society .268 I. CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF NATURAL AND POSITIVE LAW: EVOLUTION AND MUTUAL INFLUENCE Initially the doctrine of natural law was rooted in the hierarchical structure of the universe. <...> The antique philosophy could afford to recognize the priority of the sacred over the secular matters and of the public over the personal matters. <...> It is no wonder that the theory of natural law had reached its peak in the philosophy of Thomism in the Middle Ages, which was the time of the www.kulawr.ru Volume 2 October 2015 Issue 2(4) Alexander V. Konovalov Moral Foundations and Natural Law 265 most pronounced vertical corporate integration of the human society in accordance with the clearly structured <...>