The laws of civil society should be so designed, he argued, to enable individuals to conform, through their own free will, to the natural rights ordained by God.
Because of the Penal Laws which forbade Catholic education in Ireland, he was sent when young to Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, Paris, where he remained till he received the licentiate.
In 1762 he again presented himself for a chair and was appointed, in preference to a candidate of the Archbishop De Beaumont, who refused his sanction and withdrew his students from Hooke's lectures.
In consequence Hooke addressed to him a letter (1763), pleading for more lenient treatment in view of the pardon granted to de Prades, and making a profession of faith on the points impugned in the thesis.
Hooke proposed that laws (jus) should be designed so as to enable people to conform, of their own free will, to the natural rights (lex) ordained by God.