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The philosophy of international law: Suárez, Grotius and epigones

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Extract

Francisco Suárez, “the prince of modern jurists”, was accused by some of being a great anti-monarchist, even the first regicide, because he was the first “convinced and avowed republican”.

He incorporated Platonist, Aristotelian, Augustinian and Thomist ontology, metaphysics and theodicy within a legal framework; in urisprudence, he introduced the world of ideas into the material world; his discourse on law is valid for his own day and for all time. In dealing with abstract questions, he developed a philosophy of law that is applicable to concrete situations.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1997

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References

1 IRRC, No. 290, 0910 1992, pp. 416433.Google Scholar

2 See my article, “The Spanish School of the new law of nations”, in IRRC, No. 290, 0910 1992 Google Scholar, in which I wrote (p. 431), “Vitoria and Suarez were the founders of the philosophy underlying all law, Vitoria for one branch of law, Suárez for law in general”.

3 Confessions, Book IX.

4 Cicero was also the first to refer to “jus bellicum, fidesque jurisjurandi”, in De Offlciis, Book III, chapter XXIX, a locution related to “pacta sunt servanda”.