The Classical Law of Nations (1500-1800) (original) (raw)
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Review of Tamar Herzog, A Short History of European Law: The Last Two and a Half Millennia.
Journal on European History of Law, 2019
The creation of Europe under a unifying law has been one of the most important human achievements. This law set out a number of man-made rules, devised to ensure peaceful relations, with the purpose of holding the continent together, albeit not entirely successfully as the history of decades of internal political conflicts demonstrate. Nevertheless, the fragile malleability of this law has meant the endurance of the unity despite conflicts, and its evolution means that it influences what is known today as European law. In A Short History of European Law, Tamar Herzog beautifully and succinctly tells the story of European law in six parts, exploring its journey across different phases of history, from the ancient times to the twentieth century.
The Creation of International Law during the Feudalism
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2014
The major preoccupations of international law scholars and of national states were the holding and the strengthening of peace, getting the war outside the law, the promotion and the observance of the international law norms, the cooperation between states, the world security. From the father of the international law science, Hugo Grotius we have the ideas regarding rules and principles of international law, the importance of their respect of their, the need of the understanding and cooperation between states, rules regarding the carrying of war, the need for drawing rules, for eliminating the cruelties of wars, the importance of concluding some treaties between countries which must be observed and applied with good faith. An important role in getting and strengthening peace is given to the multilateral cooperation through conventions, understandings, multilateral treaties concluded between states, with the aim of harmonising the international relationships. The areas of interest of peoples have gradually evolved, so that there appeared the need of extrapolating the consolidation of the interstate relationships, going beyond the framework of the bilateral agreement between states. By analysing the evolution of history, one can notice that the states have tried to adopt different ways and manners in order to prevent conflicts and to maintain peace. These ways have translated into practice by the need for the conclusion of agreements or multilateral treaties. Basically, the multilateral cooperation of states in the creation and the application of the norms of international law has resulted in the conclusion of peace, alliance and mutual aid treaties, military, commercial, political, economic, cultural, technical and scientific treaties, and the conclusion of international conventions, regionally and worldwide, through the participation in the international conferences or through international organisations. The purpose of this study is to identify the norms of international law that were created during the feudal age and the contributions of the time scholars to the international law.
With a Foreword by Alain Wijffels, 2021
Dante Fedele’s new work of reference reveals the medieval foundations of international law through a comprehensive study of a key figure of late medieval legal scholarship: Baldus de Ubaldis (1327-1400). A student of Bartolus de Sassoferrato, Baldus wrote both extensive commentaries on Roman, canon and feudal law and thousands of consilia originating from particular cases. His writings dealt with numerous issues related to sovereignty, territorial jurisdiction, diplomacy and war, combining a rich conspectus of earlier scholarship with highly creative ideas that exercised a profound influence on later juristic thought. The detailed picture of the international law doctrines elaborated by a prominent medieval jurist offered in this study contributes to our understanding of the intellectual archaeology of international law. "Dr. Fedele’s monograph will no doubt become a necessary work of reference for any scholar interested in the history of international law. [...] Beyond the specific doctrines on particular areas of international law, Dr. Fedele’s study of Baldus shows how in the area of international governance, jurists sought to marshal different expressions of normativity." - Alain Wijffels, Foreword
The struggle for political hegemony in early modern Europe was not solely pursued by military means. The many layered antagonistic claims-often motivated by religious and political ambitions, within Europe and beyond its borders-led to a variety of theories which aimed to foster claims for political influence and hegemony. Universal monarchy and balance of power are the two main concepts which can be discerned as the principal strategies employed in the strife, if not for Empire, at least for hegemony. The study of religion and Empire is closely related to the claims to universal monarchy, as it was this concept which not only claimed legitimate dominion over the world, but in doing so, commanding the role of purveyor of order and peace. Catholicism was used to reinforce the claim to empire. However, during the process of state building in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, universal monarchy was increasingly challenged and eventually superseded by the alternative idea of a balance of power, as a means of organizing the emerging European state system.1 Indeed, among most political thinkers of the seventeenth century the idea of universal monarchy had lost its constructive political value and was mostly used polemically.2 Theories which attempted to found
The History of Law in Europe. An Introduction
Comprehensive and accessible, this book offers a concise synthesis of the evolution of the law in Western Europe, from ancient Rome to the beginning of the twentieth century. It situates law in the wider framework of Europe’s political, economic, social and cultural developments. Offering a readily graspable and sound structure, chapters are organized according to the civil law systems and common law systems. Each chapter is built around the evolution of the four sources of the law: legal science, legislation, courts and customary law, set chronologically against the relevant historical context. Throughout this in-depth presentation of the key determinants in European legal history, Bart Wauters and Marco de Benito allow readers to understand how the law arose and evolved in Europe as a shared language, of which its different national laws are but dialectal expressions – with the unique exception, perhaps, of English common law, whose peculiarity is likewise due to accidents of history which are themselves explored. With its elegant comparative approach, this book will appeal to European Law students and scholars looking for a concise, yet academically sound, account of the history of law in Europe.