July 3, 2012 3:21PM 

# Natural Law in the Nursery 

By [Walter Olson](https://www.cato.org/people/walter-olson) 

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> “It’s my toy” = property law 
> “You promised” = contract law 
> “He hit me first” = criminal law 
> “Daddy said I could” = constitutional law

—Examples that the late Prof. Harold Berman of Harvard and Emory liked to invoke to show how children, from a very early age, grasp some of the basic principles of law. \[[John McGinnis, Liberty and Law](http://libertylawsite.org/2012/05/30/harold-bermans-revolution-in-western-legal-thought-part-i/)\]

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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