Epstein, Richard A. “The Utilitarian Foundations of Natural Law.” Harv. JL & Pub. Pol’y 12 (1989): 711.

Excerpt:

“Contemporary thinking about rights draws a sharp line between deontological and consequentialist ethical theories. Deontological theories are associated with the natural law tradition as it has developed in this century, while consequentialist theories may be conveniently, if inexactly, grouped as utilitarian. The points of opposition between these approaches have been so often rehearsed that it is only necessary to summarize them briefly here. Natural rights theories regard themselves as theories of individual entitlement, not as theories of social good. Their emphasis on the justice of the individual case, the intimate connection between the doer and the sufferer of harm, makes them overtly anti-instrumental in orientation.’ They disavow the idea that the consequences of any legal rule could justify its adoption or rejection. Taken to its logical extreme, these natural law theories have-or at least ought to have-as their central maxim, fiatjustitia ruat coelum, let justice be done though the heavens may fall: if consequences never count, then disastrous consequences cannot count either.”

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