Making laws is a right of the members of the community

From My Way of Life - Pocket edition of St. Thomas - The Summa simplified. Publisher: Confraternity of the Precious Blood (1952)Author: Fr. Walter Healy and Fr. Martin Farrell

Chapter XIII - Law: The Road-Map to Happiness

"...Since the happiness of the individual is possible, in practice, only through the pursuit of the common good of the whole community, law will be concerned always with the common good of all the members of the community.

It follows therefore that the making of laws is a right of the members of the community. They may entrust that right to a king or to an elected legislature. But in that case the rulers or government are only exercising the right which society or the community has given them...

...The Natural law is based on man's recognition of the fact that the natural inclination of every creature is in inclination to the good. Recognizing this, human reason sees the first precept of law, that good is to be done and evil to be avoided. All other precepts of the natural law are based on this first precept of the Natural Law. All other laws are intended to achieve the goal of this first law--the attainment of good and the avoidance of evil..."

The Natural Law: the innocent should not be attacked of killed

In this installment (#31 Laws and Virtues, 9433.mp3) of "Get a life in Christ", Father Benedict Groeschel discusses the laws: the law of Human Nature called the Natural Law:
"The Natural law is those convictions, those rules that are necessary for human life to survive. The first rule of the natural law is that we must do good and avoid evil. The natural law is absolutely essential for the survival of the society...the most important criminal trial in the twentieth century, was tried on the natural law: the Nuremberg war trial, where the Nazis were on trial. They could not be tried by the law of the German Reich, because the Nazis hadn't violated that law. Their plea was that they had done what they were told to by the law of the Reich. And in fact they were tried and convicted, and many of them were executed for violations of the natural law, specifically that the innocent should not be attacked or killed."

Fr. Groeschel also discusses Divine law and how it works with the Natural Law.

And he discusses conscience:
"We need to incorporate the law of God by a good conscience. St Thomas Aquinas says" The natural law is nothing other than the light of understanding, placed is us by God so that we know what we must do, and what we must avoid. God has given us His law at our creation." Without conscience we can do very very little in life. The Vatican Council stated in GAUDIUM ET SPES:

"In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged.(9) Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths."

Fr. Groeschel ends by saying:
"It is conscience that makes us different from animals, it is conscience that makes us noble creatures."

Interesting parallels there between the Nuremberg trials, conscience, and the current global abortion holocaust.