The Discourse of Law in Latvian Classical Literature. Divine Law, Human-Made-Law, Natural Law

The Discourse of Law in Latvian Classical Literature. Divine Law, Human-Made-Law, Natural Law

Iveta Leitāne The first look at Latvian literary classics conveys unambiguous pessimism about legal trials, anticipated by main figures of the stories and dramas who state that it is only Divine judgment one can trust in and wait for. An impression emerges that human made law and Divine law are alternatives and exclusive to each other, the legal and eschatological dimensions thus diverge. I argue that they are not alternatives since despite deficiencies in trials depicted in Latvian classics, traces of natural law are recognizable, and the connection between human made law and divine law (Noahide Laws) is strong not only in the eschatological sense. The justification of the natural law by biblical (Divine) law can be detected in writers as different as Apsīšu Jēkabs and Rūdolfs Blaumanis.