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Javier Hervada has been outlined for his research in natural law history; its theory and its application. The last two aspects become inseparable and lead to the following three functions of natural law: as a source of «positive» law or, more properly, «institutional » law; as a critical instance of positive law, and as an integral part of the juridical system. This paper deals with this last aspect for two reasons: it is the least well known in the field of comparative natural law theory, and it is where Hervada’s contribution is most innovate. For this purpose, a presentation will be made of the Hervada’s theory that there is a single juridical system, that is composed of natural «titles» and «measures» and positive «titles» and «measures»; then, within the first above-mentioned, it is considered one of its components or factors, «time», that recognized this integration of natural law in the juridical order and, also, the aforementioned duty to guarantee the material justice of the «Institutional» law. Finally, this notion is illustrated with legislative and jurisprudential cases of argentine law, although, the exercise is perfectly applied to any comparative juridical system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes and critically analyses the process of formation of J. Hervada’s thought on the essence and ground of law. Hervada’s work constitutes, from its beginnings as a canonist, an endeavour to determine the nature of the juridical and, in connection with it, to deal with the question of the radical foundations of law which he places on the condition of a person proper to the human being and in his or her dignity. This perspective allows to confront in a satisfactory way some nuclear questions of the theory and philosophy of law that continue to be controversial to the present days: the relationship between justice and law or, more broadly, between law and morality, the question of natural law and its insertion in the legal system, the critique of legal positivism, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]