论近代西方自然法思想的理论与实践作用

近代西方自然法思想是资产阶级的自然法思想。其核心为提倡天赋人权、社会契约、主权在民、三权分立制衡和法治。这一思想成为资产阶级反对封建统治和神权专制的法律理论武器，推动了资产阶级统治的法治化建设。天赋人权、社会契约论是西方资产阶级确立政权制度的指导思想，主权在民论开创了西方政治民主制的先河，三权分立制衡是其政权结构的根本原则，法治则成为最高治国原则。这些法思想的推行一定程度有利于西方社会朝民主、文明、进步方向持续发展。

The Theory of Natural Law in Modern Times and Its Application in Practice

The theory of natural law of the west in modern times belongs to the bourgeois ideology. Its principal contents include the natural rights of man; social contracts; the sovereign rights resting with the people; check and balance of the triad of the legislative, the executive, and the judicial authorities; and rule by law. Those ideas, as powerful theoretical weapons in the bourgeois struggle against the feudal regime and theocratic despotism, contributed greatly to establishment of the legal foundation of the bourgeois government. The notions of natural rights of man and of social contracts were the guiding ideas for the western bourgeoisie to set up their political system; the thought of sovereign rights resting with the people hewed out the path for the democracy of the west; the concept of check and balance of the legislative, the executive, and the judicial authorities constituted the very base of the bourgeois regime; and the idea of rule by law became their supreme political principle. Application of the theory of natural law, to some extent, has proved advantageous to a sustained development of the western society towards democracy, civilization, and progress.