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The Contribution of the Medieval Canon Lawyers to the Formation of International Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

James Muldoon*
Affiliation:
Rutgers University — Camden

Abstract

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Type
Bibliographical Survey
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Les origines du droit international (Brussels-Paris 1894) iv. See also his Études de droit international et de droit politique (2 vols.; Brussels 1896, 1901) and Le droit international (3 vols.; Brussels 1912). A convenient summary of Nys' views on the pre-Grotian origins of international law can be found in his introduction to Vitoria's De Indis et de jure belli relectiones (Washington, D.C. 1917; reprinted New York 1964) 55–100.Google Scholar

2 Nys, Origines 7.Google Scholar

3 Ibid. 11.Google Scholar

4 Ibid. 144.Google Scholar

5 Ibid. 150.Google Scholar

6 Ibid. 154–55.Google Scholar

7 Ibid. 159.Google Scholar

8 Nussbaum, Arthur, A Concise History of the Law of Nations (rev. ed. New York 1954) 293–94.Google Scholar

9 Vanderpol, A., Le Droit de guerre d'après les théologiens et les canonistes du moyen-ǎge (Paris-Brussels 1911).Google Scholar

10 Regout, Robert, La doctrine de la guerre juste (Paris 1935) 301.Google Scholar

11 Vanderpol, 151.Google Scholar

12 Ibid. 155.Google Scholar

13 Holland, Thomas E., Studies in International Law (Oxford 1898) 139.Google Scholar

14 Ibid. 2.Google Scholar

15 Ibid.Google Scholar

16 Ibid. 22.Google Scholar

17 Ibid. 44.Google Scholar

18 Ibid. 44, 56. It should be noted, however, that Holland's references to the canonists are filled with minor errors which suggest that his knowledge of the sources must have been slight. For example, he refers to ‘the title De Homocidio in the sixth book of the Decretals' when in fact it is in the fifth and last book.Google Scholar

19 Vanderpol, 154–55.Google Scholar

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22 On Scott's life and career, see: Finch, G. A., ‘James Brown Scott, 1866–1943,American Journal of International Law [AJIL] 38 (1944) 183217; and F. R. Coudert, ‘An Appreciation of James Brown Scott,’ ibid. 37 (1943) 559–61.Google Scholar

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26 Nys, Ernest, ‘The Development and Formation of International Law,’ AJIL 6 (1912) 129, 279–315. See also Amos Hershey, ‘The History of International Relations During Antiquity and the Middle Ages,’ ibid. 5 (1911) 901–33; and ‘History of International Law Since the Peace of Westphalia,’ ibid. 6 (1912) 30–69; Sherman, G. E., ‘The Nature and Sources of International Law,’ ibid. 15 (1921) 349–60.Google Scholar

27 Blach, T. W., ‘Albericus Gentilis,’ AJIL 5 (1911) 665–79; F. F. Abbott, ‘Alberico Gentili and his Advocatio Hispanica,’ ibid. 10 (1916) 737–48.Google Scholar

28 Preface to Vitoria, De Indis p. 5.Google Scholar

29 Scott, J. B., The Spanish Conception of International Law and of Sanctions (Washington, D.C. 1934) 51. Scott's other works include: The Spanish Origin of International Law (Washington, D.C. 1928); The Catholic Conception of International Law (Washington, D.C. 1934); The Spanish Origin of International Law: Francisco de Vitoria and his Law of Nations (Oxford 1934).Google Scholar

30 See for example, Spanish Origin (1934) 71, 118.Google Scholar

31 Vitoria, De Indis 55.Google Scholar

32 Nussbaum (cit. supra n. 8) 304.Google Scholar

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34 It might be noted here that several of the authors discussed indicated a debt to the Carnegie Endowment. These include Eppstein, John, Hanke, Lewis, and Moreau-Reibel, Jean.Google Scholar

35 Brierly, J. L., The Law of Nations (Oxford 1928) 19.Google Scholar

36 Ibid. (5th ed. 1955) 36.Google Scholar

37 Holland (cit. supra n. 13), 20.Google Scholar

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39 Wright, Herbert F., Francisci de Victoria: De iure belli relectio (Washington, D.C. 1916).Google Scholar

40 Ibid. 17, 21.Google Scholar

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44 See Wright, H. F., ‘International Law: Old Wine in New Bottles, Catholic World 132 (1931–1932) 513–21; ‘Catholic Founders of International Law,’ Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia 45 (1934) 119–43. See also his ‘The Divorce of Henry VIII,’ American Catholic Quarterly Review 44 (1919) 556–65; ‘Origin of American Aborigines: A Famous Controversy,’ Catholic Historical Review 3 (1917–1918) 257–75; and ‘St. Augustine and International Peace,’ Thought 6 (1931) 399–416.Google Scholar

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46 Pfeiffer, Nicolaus, ‘The Doctrine of International Law According to Francis de Victoria O.P.,Catholic Historical Review 6 (1926–1927) 185224. See also G. F. Benkert, The Thomistic Conception of an International Society (Washington, D.C. 1942).Google Scholar

47 McKenna, C. H., ‘Francisco de Vitoria: Father of International Law,Studies 21 (1932) 635–48 at 647.Google Scholar

48 Eppstein, John, The Catholic Tradition of the Law of Nations (Washington, D.C. 1935) xviii. For a similar point of view by an author who was not a Catholic, see: R. F. Wright, Medieval Internationalism: The Contribution of the Medieval Church to International Law and Peace (London 1930).Google Scholar

49 Wright, H. F., in New Scholasticism 9 (1935) 369–70 at 369.Google Scholar

50 Salvador de Madariaga, Spain (New York 1930) 48, cited in Merriman, R. B., Rise of the Spanish Empire (4 vols.; New York 1918–1934; reprinted New York 1962) IV 484. Madariaga gives no indication in the text as to the source of this opinion, but in a bibliographical note at the end he cites the Classics edition of Vitoria's De Indis, suggesting the possibility that he was influenced by Nys' views. See Spain 484.Google Scholar

51 Parry, J. H., The Spanish Theory of Empire in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge 1940) 19.Google Scholar

52 Ibid. 19–20.Google Scholar

53 Parry has not essentially changed his views concerning the importance of Vitoria and the other pre-Grotians. See his The Spanish Seaborne Empire (New York 1966) 138–39, 142.Google Scholar

54 Hanke, Lewis, The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of America (Philadelphia 1949; reprinted Boston 1965) 28.Google Scholar

55 Ibid. 1.Google Scholar

56 Ibid. 151.Google Scholar

57 Fenwick, C. G., AJIL 29 (1935) 183–84 at 184.Google Scholar

58 Ibid.Google Scholar

59 Nussbaum 113.Google Scholar

60 Ibid. 301.Google Scholar

61 Ibid. 298.Google Scholar

62 Ibid.Google Scholar

63 Ibid. 80–81.Google Scholar

64 Ibid. 297.Google Scholar

65 It should be noted that Nussbaum's views on the significance of Vitoria and Suárez and the polemical tone of his criticism of Scott were in turn criticized as being too extreme. See the review by Kunz, J. L., AJIL 50 (1956) 448–49. Ironically, one reviewer of the first edition (1947) declared that ‘Victoria and Suarez are masterly portrayed in the restricted space of some fifteen pages.’ See Freeman, A. V., AJIL 43 (1949) 603–05 at 603.Google Scholar

66 Regout, 9–10, 301.Google Scholar

67 Ibid. 59–60.Google Scholar

68 Ibid. 15.Google Scholar

69 Moreau-Reibel, Jean, ‘Le droit de société interhumaine et le jus “gentium”: Essai sur les origines et le développement des notions jusqu’à Grotius,’ Académie de droit international, Recueil des cours 77 (1950) 481597 at 524.Google Scholar

70 Ibid. 523–24.Google Scholar

71 Ibid. 514.Google Scholar

72 Ibid. 486.Google Scholar

73 Ibid. 524.Google Scholar

74 Ibid. 531.Google Scholar

75 Ibid. 532.Google Scholar

76 Belch, Stanislaus, Paulus Vladimiri and His Doctrine Concerning International Law and Politics (2 vols.; The Hague 1965) I 742.Google Scholar

77 Ibid.Google Scholar

78 Ibid. 751.Google Scholar

79 Ibid. 75.Google Scholar

80 Muldoon, J., ‘Extra ecclesiam non est imperium : The Canonists and the Legitimacy of Secular Power,’ Studia Gratiana 9 (1960) 553–80.Google Scholar

81 Muldoon, J., ‘A Canonistic Contribution to the Formation of International Law,The Jurist 28 (1968) 265–79.Google Scholar

82 Innocent IV's sponsorship of an embassy to the Mongols is often forgotten. See Dawson, Christopher, The Mongol Mission (London and New York 1955).Google Scholar

83 Several of the most important bulls are available in Davenport, F. G., European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and its Dependencies to 1815 (4 vols.; Washington, D.C. 1917–1919; reprinted Gloucester, Mass. 1967) I.Google Scholar

84 Weckman, Luis, Las Bulas Alejandrinas de 1493 y la teoría política del papado medieval (Mexico City 1949). Weckman's bibliography, though extensive, does not include the works of Nys, Vanderpol, or Scott.Google Scholar

85 de Witte, Charles-Martial, ‘Les bulles pontificales et l'expansion portugaise au XVe siècle,’ Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 48 (1953) 683718; 49 (1954) 438–61; 51 (1956) 415–53, 809–36; 53 (1958) 5–46 and 443–71.Google Scholar