All laws are based on what?

• A. Local government
• B. Cultural norms
• C. Human consensus
• D. Eternal/divine law

Answer: (D)

Laws are grounded in a transcendent standard of order that remains constant beyond any one culture or political system. The idea is that there is an eternal or divine order—often described as eternal or divine law—by which right and justice are measured. Human laws should reflect or participate in that higher order, and when they don’t, they’re not truly just laws.

This view helps explain why the basis of law isn’t just local rules, cultural habits, or the sheer will of the majority. Local government provides structures for creating and enforcing rules, and cultural norms or human consensus influence what gets written into law, but they don’t offer a universal, unchanging standard of morality. Eternal/divine law, by contrast, is seen as the objective source of right and wrong that human law should align with. If a law violates that higher order, it’s judged unjust, no matter how widely it’s accepted.