As an animal is observed, its behavior is the nature of that animal.  Nothing more, nothing less.  There is an objective set of ethics.  The natural law is discoverable by man’s reason.  There is widespread ignorance of what the natural law is.  This doesn’t mean mistakes can’t be made. As Murray Rothbard pointed out, “those who try to hew to a policy of individual liberty” fail to grasp this.  Natural law is a threat to the statist quo.

There is an absolute principle of justice.  That is, the ability to determine what constitutes violence in interhuman relationships.  It was John Locke, above all, who influence the American revolutionaries.  As Locke put it, “Every man has a property in his own person…The labor of his body and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his.  Whatsoever then he removes out of the state of nature…he hath mixed his labour…makes it his property.”

There is a crucial distinction between what is ethical and what is moral.  Ethics refers to what you do with your own property so long as it doesn’t uninvitedly interfere with another’s.  Morals can be what is right in a given society.  Morals, can and do, differ from society to society, but they must adhere to ethics.  Ethics is referring to the legality of an action, which may or may not be moral.  Legality and acceptance are two very different things, they should not be confused.

To observe the natural law, a value system is not needed.  The natural law is value free.  Any policy proposal, however insignificant, a value judgement has been made.  Understanding the natural law can expose the values of others.  It will nearly always show they are allowing violence in through the backdoor, so long as it is not their backdoor.  This puts into context the natural law, but what about positive law?

If Crusoe is fishing and Friday is collecting berries, the fish are Crusoe’s, and the berries are Friday’s.  Crusoe has mixed his labor with the fish.  Friday has mixed his labor with the berries.  Friday can demand that Crusoe give him some fish against his will: this is positive law.  Positive law created by Friday.  The natural law is discovered by reason.  Positive law is created by a human.

Reference

Murray Rothbard; The Ethics of Liberty