Law, however, is also a normative social practice: it purports to guide human behavior, giving rise to reasons for action. An attempt to explain this normative, reason-giving aspect of law is one of the main challenges of general jurisprudence. These two sources of interest in the nature of law are closely linked.

What does it mean to say law is normative?

Something is normative if it is or serves as a norm, that is, as a guide to conduct, belief, or emotion. Norms are standards; some of them are justified, some of them are not, but they are all norms and norms in the same sense of 'norm'. ... For law actually is normative, at least for some people some of the time.

Why is natural law normative?

Natural law theory accepts that law can be considered and spoken of both as a sheer social fact of power and practice, and as a set of reasons for action that can be and often are sound as reasons and therefore normative for reasonable people addressed by them.