WHAT History of International Relations: property and sovereignty, Intensive Course
WHEN June 6-8, 2017, 18h00 - 20h00
WHERE University of Lisbon, Faculdade de Direito de Lisboa, Anfiteatro 10
The foundation of jus gentium—of which freedom of trade was a part—in Suarez did not lie in natural law, as one might think, but in a modification or deviation from natural law. The original, immutable na1ª e 2ª Sessões (6 e 7 de Junho): Spanish Scholasticism and British Empire. tural law derived from God at the creation of the world and, as Suárez and the whole tradition in which he writes, including St. Thomas Aquinas, agree, provided for common ownership of all things. With the Fall, however, the requirements of the government of human societies had necessitated the division of things, divisio rerum. This had been undertaken gradually in the practice of all or most peoples so that it had become consecrated as a custom-based jus gentium. Private property arose as a concession to human sinfulness, a necessary aspect of social life among egoistic individuals. Even as its present validity was unquestioned, it looked backwards to an original Christian ethics for which freedom was also freedom from private property, and resources of the earth were managed jointly among humans. It accepted the distinction between presente reality and Christian utopia."
