Leviathan

Unlike natural laws, civil laws represent the commands of the sovereign. They may consist of new commands issued by the sovereign or long-standing laws that the sovereign has not explicitly nullified. Hobbes points out that a true sovereign is not subject to civil law.

Any edict that isn’t a natural law, whether it comes from a sovereign or from God, is referred to as a positive law. Divine positive laws include the Ten Commandments and may also include a direct command from God to a prophet. Human positive laws are the civil laws detailed earlier in the chapter and may either be distributive—meaning that a right is granted to a subject—or punitive.

Finally, Hobbes distinguishes between fundamental laws and nonfundamental laws. A fundamental law is one that, if voided, will result in the dissolution of the commonwealth. One example is the law granting the sovereign’s right to maintain a standing military. A nonfundamental law is one that may be repealed without threatening the solvency of a commonwealth and generally concerns interactions between subjects.

First, Hobbes distinguishes between crime and sin. A crime is the committing of any act forbidden by the law. According to Hobbes, because crime represents a violation of the covenant between subject and sovereign, all crime is a sin.