The present essay intends to reconstruct Michel Villey's legal philosophical conception in order to be able to evaluate his contribution to the natural law tradition (§1). To this end, his rediscovery of classical, Aristotelian-Thomistic, natural law is decisive, as opposed to modern natural law and its reductionisms (§2).
After tracing its historical framework (§3), the Villeyan reworking of classical natural law theory is exposed by illustrating its fundamental themes: the observation of nature as the source of natural law (§4.1), the relationship of natural law with natural laws (§4.2), with positive laws (§4.3) and with subjective rights (§4.4), the methodology of natural law (§5).
Finally, we consider the debate that has developed around the French philosopher's work, highlighting some profiles for which, despite the soundness of some criticisms, his thought manifests its continuing validity (§6).
