Relectio C. Novit De Iudiciis

O presente artigo tem por objetivo apresentar uma análise mais detida e explicativa da obra Relectio C. Novit de Iudiciis (“Sobre o Poder Supremo”), de autoria de Martín de Azpilcueta Navarro, conhecido também como Doutor Navarro, teólogo e jurista do século XVI que marcou forte influência em seus estudos e docência nas universidades europeias, com destaque para as universidades ibéricas de Alcalá de Henares, Salamanca e Coimbra. Destaca-se aspectos biográficos do Doutor Navarro, sua influência na renovação metodológica escolástica que estruturou a Segunda Escolástica ao lado de personalidades como Francisco de Vitoria e Domingo de Soto, atuando de modo mais evidente nos campos do Direito Canônico e da Teologia Moral. Destaca-se ainda o contexto histórico que ensejou a elaboração da obra analisada, seus antecedentes na Revolução Papal e os aspectos mais importantes da própria obra, que é a distinção entre os poderes temporal e eclesiástico. No mais, adentra-se em outras contribuições importantes do Doutor Navarro, tais como sua participação na Inquisição Espanhola, sua influência na formulação do Ius gentium, a influência na estruturação da Companhia de Jesus e a formulação de sua Teoria Quantitativa da Moeda, grande marco principiológico de seus conceitos morais dentro da realidade socioeconômica da Conquista ibérica.

Beyond Sovereignty

Most texts examined so far were designed to explain where power lay within a local, seemingly autonomous political community. But local circumstances were shaped by the international situation, and the relationship between the local political community and the wider human society of which it was part became an increasingly important issue towards the end of the sixteenth century. In the face of continuing Habsburg dominance on the European continent, Protestants like Alberico Gentili began to articulate new ideas of a shared human society and of the law of peoples (ius gentium), using these to justify military intervention. The relationship between the law of peoples, the law of war, and Christian principles came to be debated more intensely, especially as political tensions deepened. With the outbreak of the Thirty Years War in 1618, calls for solidarity among co-religionists intensified, but this period also saw a major new account of the laws of nature which explicitly distinguished these from Christianity (although not from religion). In De Jure Belli ac Pacis (1625), Hugo Grotius argued that the authority of the civil magistrate needed to be connected to the natural law if his commands were to be seen as legitimate, while he defined this natural law in terms of ‘strict right’, distinct from considerations of virtue, distributive justice, or Christian charity. His achievement was to suggest how human beings with diverse opinions about salvation and merit could live peacefully together.

The Right of Sovereignty

Bodin’s most important theoretical achievement was to conceptualize sovereignty as an indivisible and portable bundle of legal rights, which he collectively designated ius summi imperii. Sovereignty, on this account, was modelled on the creditor’s in personam right arising from a debt obligation in civil law. Just as a creditor has a right to an actionable remedy enforcing the debtor’s performance of contractual obligations, so too does a sovereign state have a legal right to enforce acts of allegiance owed by its subjects and, in the case of treaty obligations, acts of fidelity owed by foreign obligors. Applying a doctrine of medieval legal science, Bodin traced the source of that sovereign right to the law of nations [ius gentium]. While sovereigns may be exempt from their own legislation [legibus soluti], they always remain legally bound to observe the ius gentium and exercise sovereign rights in accordance with its principles.

Isidore of Seville on ius gentium: The View of a Theologian

In this article, my objective is to provide an understanding of Isidore of Seville’s enormously influential definition of ius gentium in its own right. Recent studies have primarily focused on the legal aspects of Isidore’s conception of ius gentium. However, while Isidore as a man of learning was familiar with the legal categories he used, it is by no means certain that his understanding of legal concepts would match that of a contemporary jurist. Isidore was a theologian, and there are strong indications that he was more than a mere transmitter of classical knowledge. In this article, I show that he was an original thinker whose conception of ius gentium contained several innovative features that could not be fully grasped without a deep understanding of his theological ideas based on Augustine and Gregory the Great.

Francisco de Vitoria on the Right to Free Trade and Justice

In 1538–39 Francisco de Vitoria delivered two relections: De Indis and De iure belli. This article distills from these writings the topic of free trade as a “human right” in accordance with ius gentium or the “law of peoples.” The right to free trade is rooted in a more fundamental right to communication and association. The rights to travel, to dwell, and to migrate precede the right to trade, which is also closely connected to the rights to preach, to protect converts, and to constitute Christian princes. This has significant repercussions on the field of business ethics: the right to free trade is ultimately founded directly on natural law and indirectly on divine law; trade is not independent of ethics; and trade is presented as an opportunity to develop the virtues of justice and friendship, among other repercussions. Vitoria is portrayed as a defender of private initiative and free markets.

El ius gentium y la idea liberal de un orden mundial justo en John Rawls

Este artículo se centra en The Law of Peoples (1999), libro con el que John Rawls cierra el tríptico de su concepción socio-democrática de la justicia dentro de la tradición liberal, iniciada a principios de la década de los ‘70 con A Theory of Justice (1971), donde describe la justicia como equidad como un ideal moral universal al que deben aspirar todas las sociedades, y continuada dos décadas más tarde con Political Liberalism (1993), obra en la que el pensador estadounidense abunda en su idea de extender una concepción política de la justicia al Derecho de los pueblos y a su función reguladora de las relaciones justas entre los pueblos. De cualquier modo, pese a que Rawls admite expresamente la ascendencia que tienen sobre su idea de justicia el contractualismo y el iusnaturalismo kantianos, así como la influencia que ejerce sobre su estudio dedicado al Derecho de gentes la doctrina universalista e iusirenista del Derecho internacional público, veremos hasta qué punto satisfizo o defraudó Rawls con su visión pluralista del orden mundial las expectativas de quienes esperaban que hiciera una defensa firme de la justicia universal y de la democracia cosmopolita.

Francis Bacon on Imperial and Colonial Warfare

This article offers a textual and historical reconstruction of Francis Bacon's thought on imperial and colonial warfare. Bacon holds that conquest, acquisition of peoples and territory through force, followed by subjugation, confers a legal right and title. Imperial expansion is justified both by arguments concerning the interstate balance of power and by arguments related to internal order and stability. On Bacon's view, a successful state must be expansionist, for two key reasons: first, as long as its rivals are expansionist, a state must keep up and even try to outpace them, and, second, a surplus population will foment civil war unless this “surcharge of people” is farmed out to colonies. These arguments for imperial state expansion are held to justify both internal and external colonization and empire. Paradoxically, Bacon holds that the internally colonized may be treated with greater severity, as suppressed rebels, than the externally colonized, who are more fitly a subject of the ius gentium. Bacon holds that toleration offers both an imperial stratagem and a comparative justification for why English and British imperial expansion is more desirable than Spanish imperial expansion. The article concludes with reflections about how one might understand the place of imperial and colonial projects in Bacon's thought, contending that these projects are central to an understanding of Bacon's political aims and thought more broadly.