Introduction: Francisco de Vitoria and the Origins of the Modern Global Order

Pagden, Anthony

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-62998-8_1

Anthony Pagden⁵

Part of the book series: Studies in the History of Law and Justice ((SHLJ,volume 10))

629 Accesses
2 Citations

Abstract

This Introduction seeks to demonstrate how the various contributions to the volume relate to one another. It seeks, also, to locate them in the context of Francisco de Vitoria’s attempt to create a new supra-national juridical order. This, although it was clearly intended to offer some degree of legitimacy for the Spanish occupation of the Americas, was also conceived as a “law of nations” that, while grounded ultimately upon natural law, would be, in essence, a positive law derived from the presumed consensus of a hypothetical international community.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Chapter: USD 29.95; Price excludes VAT (USA)

eBook: USD 139.00; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Softcover Book: USD 179.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Hardcover Book: USD 179.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
Schmitt 2003, 39, 69.
2.
See Pagden 2015.
3.
Grotius 2005, I, 163.
4.
Article 39 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice.
5.
Boswell 1934, I, 45.
6.
Considerations on Representative Government, [1861] in Mill 1984, xix.
7.
See, e.g., Anghie 2005.
8.
“Letter to Miguel de Arcos,” 8 November 1534, in Vitoria 1991, 331.
9.
Schmitt 2003, 92.
10.
“On the American Indians” Vitoria 1991, 233.
11.
Ibid., 233–4.
12.
Printed in Getino 1930, 150–1.
13.
Luhman 2004, 440.
14.
Digest I. 5. IV.
15.
De Officis, III 69.
16.
Vitoria 1991, 281.
17.
Soto 1556, 197.
18.
“On Civil Power,” Vitoria 1991, 40. For a more detailed account of how this operates see Deckers 1991, 345–94.
19.
Ibid.
20.
Schmitt 2003, 107.
21.
“On the American Indians,” Vitoria 1991, 264.
22.
For a more extensive account see Pagden 2015.
23.
“On the American Indians,” Vitoria 1991, 278. As he defines it, this seems to have been Vitoria’s own creation. St. Augustine had suggested that denial of a right of passage might be sufficient injuria for a just war. But this has none of the structure of Vitoria’s argument (Quaestiones in Heptateuchum, IV. 44; Decretum C.23. 2.3).
24.
“On the American Indians,” Vitoria 1991, 280.
25.
Ibid., p. 278, citing Justinian Institutes I.2.1, “what natural reason has established among all nations is called the law of nations.” See note above.
26.
Ibid., 279.
27.
Ibid., 278.
28.
Ibid., 291-2.
29.
Vattel 2008, 275.
30.
“On the American Indians,” Vitoria 1991, 278.
31.
“nisi vocetur Alexander peregrinus,” De Dominio indorum, in Pereña 1956, 142.
32.
Pufendorf 1934, II, 364–6.
33.
Ibid.
34.
“On the American Indians,” Vitoria 1991, 284.
35.
Antony Anghie, for instance claims, that “Vitoria bases his conclusion that the Indians are not sovereign on the simple assertion that they are pagan” Anghie 2005, 29. Cf. Sharon Korman who infers from Vitoria’s claim that non-Christian rulers were bound to admit Christian missionaries under the ius peregrinandi implied that non-Christian states did not possess the same legal standing as Christian ones. Korman 1996, 53.
36.
“On the American Indians,” Vitoria 1991, 284.
37.
Ibid. 285.
38.
Evans 2008, 53.
39.
Ibid. 287–8.
40.
“On the Law of War” Vitoria 1991, 305.
41.
“On Civil Power,” Vitoria 1991, 40 and see Miaja de la Muela 1965. Vitoria like most scholastics, accepted the traditional distinction between potestas and auctoritas (on which Hobbes heaped such scorn). On this issue see, Wagner 2011 who describes potestas as a “factual power reflexively embedded in a legal order.”
42.
“On the Law of War,” Vitoria 1991, 305.
43.
Ibid., 299.
44.
“On Dietary Laws,” Vitoria 1991, 209.
45.
Ibid., 215.
46.
Ibid., 1.5 218.
47.
Suárez 1954, 149–152.
48.
Soto 1556, 195.
49.
Suárez 1965, 94.
50.
“On the American Indians,” Vitoria 1991, 287–8.
51.
“On the Law of War,” Vitoria 1991, 324.

References

Anghie A (2005) Imperialism, sovereignty and the making of international law. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Book Google Scholar
Boswell J (1934) Boswell’s life of Johnson. In: Hill GB (ed) Oxford University Press, Oxford
Google Scholar
Deckers D (1991) Gerechtigkeit und Recht. Eine historisch-kritische Untersuchung der Gerechtigkeitslehre des Francisco de Vitoria (1483–1546). Universitätsverlag Freiburg, Freiburg
Google Scholar
Evans G (2008) The responsibility to protect. Ending mass atrocity crimes once and for all. Brookings Institution Press, Washington DC
Google Scholar
Getino Alonso (1930) El Maestro Fray Francisco de Vitoria. Imprenta católica, Madrid
Google Scholar
Grotius H (2005) The rights of war and peace. In: Tuck R (ed) De Iure Pacis et Belli, 1625. Liberty Fund, Indianapolis
Google Scholar
Korman S (1996) The Right of Conquest. The Acquisition of Territory by Force in International Law and Practice. Oxford: The Clarendon Press
Google Scholar
Luhman Niklas (2004) Law as a social system. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Google Scholar
Miaja de la Muela A (1965) El derecho totius orbis en el pensamiento de Francisco de Vitoria. Revista española de derecho internacional 18:341–52
Google Scholar
Mill JS (1984) Essays on equality law and education. In: Robson JM (ed) Collected works of John Stuart Mill, vol 18. University of Toronto Press, Toronto
Google Scholar
Pagden A (2015) The burdens of Empire 1539 to the present. Cambridge, Cambridge
Book Google Scholar
Pufendorf S (1934) De iure naturae et gentium libri octo, [1672] (trans: Oldfather CH, Oldfather WA). Clarendon Press, Oxford
Google Scholar
Schmitt C (2003) The nomos of the earth in the international law of the Jus Publicum Europaeum. Trans: Umen GL (ed) Telos Press, New York
Google Scholar
Soto D de (1556) De iustitia et iure, libri decem, Salamanca
Google Scholar
Suárez F (1954) Disputatio xii. De Bello, from Opus de triplice virtute theologica, fide spe et charitate [Paris, 1621], printed in vol. 2 of L. Pereña Vicente, Teoria de la guerra en Francisco Suárez, 2 vols, Madrid: C.S.I.C
Google Scholar
Suárez F (1965) De legibus. Comentarios al tratado de la ley ed. and trans. Francisco Puy and Luís Núñez. Universidad de Granada, Granada
Google Scholar
Vattel E de (2008) The law of nations or, principles of the law of nature. In: Kapossy B, Whatmore R (eds) Le droit des gens. Ou principes de la loi naturelle, 1797. Liberty Fund, Indianapolis
Google Scholar
Vitoria F de (1991) Vitoria political writings. In: Pagden A, Lawrance J (trans and eds). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Google Scholar
Wagner A (2011) Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili on the legal character of the global commonwealth. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 31(3):565–582
Article Google Scholar

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

University of California, Los Angeles, California, US
Anthony Pagden

Authors

Anthony Pagden
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anthony Pagden .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Institute for European Studies, CEU San Pablo University, Madrid, Spain
José María Beneyto
Institute for European studies, CEU San Pablo University , Madrid, Spain
Justo Corti Varela

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Pagden, A. (2017). Introduction: Francisco de Vitoria and the Origins of the Modern Global Order. In: Beneyto, J., Corti Varela, J. (eds) At the Origins of Modernity. Studies in the History of Law and Justice, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62998-8_1

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62998-8_1
Published: 01 September 2017
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62997-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62998-8
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics