This type of law is necessary as it is manmade or enacted by the state to protect the rights of the individuals, the governed, to resolve civil disputes and lastly to maintain order and safety in the society.
[3] In the Summa contra Gentiles Thomas himself writes of divine positive law where he says "Si autem lex sit divinitus posita, auctoritate divina dispensatio fieri potest (if the law be divinely given, dispensation can be granted by divine authority)"[6] and "Lex autem a Deo posita est (But the Law was established by God)".
[7] Martin Luther also acknowledged the idea of divine positive law, as did Juan de Torquemada.
[5] However, for other philosophers the idea of both divine and human positive law has proven to be a stumbling block.
Where Thomism (and indeed Mackenzie) divided sovereignty into the spiritual (God) and the temporal (Mackenzie's "supreme power in the state"), both Hobbes and Austin sought a single, undivided, sovereign as the ultimate source of the law.
Classical liberal and libertarian philosophers usually favor natural law over legal positivism.
Positive law, to French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, was freedom from internal obstacles.