Download or read book La escuela de Salamanca y la renovaci n de la teolog a en el siglo XVI written by Juan Belda Plans and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 997 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ¿Qué es la Escuela de Salamanca? ¿Cuál fue su origen y su evolución ulterior? ¿Quiénes fueron sus miembros? Qué características presenta? ¿Cuál fue su influjo y proyección posteriores? Son algunos interrogantes planteados en esta obra. Frente a una teología bajo-medieval en crisis, la Escuela de Salamanca presenta un proyecto de reforma teológica de gran calidad científica que responde a los retos de la Edad Moderna. Un serio concepto de la teología y su método, anclado en las mejores esencias de la Gran Escolástica medieval junto con los valores culturales del Humanismo (exigencias histórico-críticas, elegancia formal y literaria, etc.) dará corno fruto una teología nueva &―escolástica y humanista a la vez&― para un tiempo nuevo, haciéndola progresar de manera fundamental. Diversos autores estudiaron a lo largo del siglo XX aspectos parciales de tan amplio tema. La obra presente se propone ofrecer por primera vez un estudio de conjunto —sistemático y bien estructurado— acerca de la Escuela de Salamanca y su significación en el movimiento renovador del siglo XXI. Esta interesante teología salmantina renovada fue la que influyó decisivamente en Trento, en el Catecismo Romano y en la solución de los graves problemas sociopolíticos del momento (como la colonización americana, la reorientación de la moral económica, la teorización del derecho internacional, el problema de la paz y la guerra). No se trata, sin embargo, de una mera curiosidad o erudición histórica: el gran esfuerzo realizado por la Escuela de Salamanca puede servirnos muy bien de punto de referencia y de inspiración para las serias tareas renovadoras del siglo XXI.

Download or read book The School of Salamanca A Case of Global Knowledge Production written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-03-01 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past few decades, a growing number of studies have highlighted the importance of the ‘School of Salamanca’ for the emergence of colonial normative regimes and the formation of a language of normativity on a global scale. According to this influential account, American and Asian actors usually appear as passive recipients of normative knowledge produced in Europe. This book proposes a different perspective and shows, through a knowledge historical approach and several case studies, that the School of Salamanca has to be considered both an epistemic community and a community of practice that cannot be fixed to any individual place. Instead, the School of Salamanca encompassed a variety of different sites and actors throughout the world and thus represents a case of global knowledge production. Contributors are: Adriana Álvarez, Virginia Aspe, Marya Camacho, Natalie Cobo, Thomas Duve, José Luis Egío, Dolors Folch, Enrique González González, Lidia Lanza, Esteban Llamosas, Osvaldo R. Moutin, and Marco Toste.

Download or read book The School of Salamanca in the Affairs of the Indies written by Natsuko Matsumori and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-09-28 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The School of Salamanca in the Affairs of the Indies explores the significance of Salamancans, such as Vitoria and Soto, and related thinkers, such as Las Casas and Sepúlveda, in the formation of the early modern political order. It also analyses early modern understandings of political order, with a focus both on the decline of the medieval universal world through the independence and secularization of political community and the establishment of continuous and imbalanced relations between various European and non-European political communities. Through its investigation, this book highlights how Salamancans and related thinkers clearly distinguished their understandings of political order from medieval thought, and did so in a different way to contemporary and later thinkers, such as Machiavelli, Luther, Bodin, and Grotius, particularly with regards to the Indies, “barbarian” worlds. It also reveals the strong contribution of the School of Salamanca in early modern political thought, both internally and externally. Salamancans imposed moral restrictions against “interior barbarism,” that is, power beyond law, and included “exterior barbarism,” that is, “barbarian” societies, in the common political order. Situating the School of Salamanca in the mainstream history of European political thought, The School of Salamanca in the Affairs of the Indies is ideal for academics and postgraduate students of intellectual history and of Spanish colonial expansion.

Download or read book La primera escuela de Salamanca 1406 1516 written by Cirilo Flórez Miguel and published by Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Los estudios sobre la Universidad de Salamanca han destacado como un momento clásico de la misma la llamada «segunda escolástica», que se hace partir de Francisco de Vitoria. El Congreso celebrado en la Universidad de Salamanca en septiembre de 2011 bajo el título La primera escuela de Salamanca (1406-1516) se ha centrado en el estudio del pensamiento presente en dicha Universidad en el siglo XV y las primeras décadas del siglo XVI, que es el momento en el que tiene lugar un importante cambio, tanto en el ámbito de las universidades como en el de los reinos. En el siglo XV se pasa, en efecto, de la universidad medieval a la universidad moderna. Ese momento histórico coincide en Europa con el resurgir político de los reinos, que reivindican su autonomía frente al poder eclesiástico. Esto ocurre claramente en Francia con Luis XIV y asimismo en España a partir de la dinastía de los Trastámara, y de modo especial en la época de los Reyes Católicos. Esto lo analiza José Luis Villacañas en su obra sobre la Monarquía. El Congreso, cuyos resultados principales aquí presentamos, parte de un análisis de la nueva estructura de los saberes acorde con la reorganización de la Universidad como consecuencia de las Constituciones de Martín V. Ana María Carabias analiza la nueva institución académica del «colegio mayor» y el papel de los colegiales como «letrados» en relación con las labores de administración y servicios respecto a la monarquía. La reorganización de los saberes trae consigo una nueva idea de educación, que Pablo García Castillo investiga en su estudio sobre el tratado de Alonso Ortiz Diálogo sobre la educación del príncipe Don Juan, al que relaciona con los tratados sobre educación de los siglos XIV y XV, y del que destaca que puede incluirse en el contexto del humanismo salmantino del siglo XV, así como ser encuadrado dentro de las nuevas ideas sobre educación que aparecen en el contexto del Renacimiento. El segundo núcleo de estudios se centra en el análisis de tres grandes teólogos del siglo XV relacionados con la Universidad de Salamanca e implicados en las discusiones que están teniendo lugar en el seno de la Iglesia en cuanto a la interpretación de los textos, fundamentalmente de la Biblia y sobre el tipo de gobierno político de la Iglesia. En este apartado José Luis Villacañas analiza el papel del teólogo Alonso de Cartagena, destacando su cristianismo paulino y la incidencia que tiene en su interpretación de los textos bíblicos. Se detiene en su análisis de la teoría de la iluminación y destaca la importancia de este camino, pronto olvidado en la historia de Castilla y de España. El estudio de Inmaculada Delgado Jara analiza el tipo de exégesis bíblica practicada por otro de los grandes teólogos de la primera escuela de Salamanca: Alfonso Fernández de Madrigal, conocido por el sobrenombre de El Tostado. Destaca la inclinación de El Tostado por el sentido literal de la Escritura, al considerarlo su único sentido inmediato, lo que trae consigo el paso de una interpretación místico-moral de la Escritura a otra literal que implica una actitud crítica ante la tradición. Esto hace de El Tostado el exponente más alto de la ciencia sagrada en el siglo XV. Por último, el tercero de los estudios de este apartado, el de Antonio Rivera García, analiza el pensamiento de Juan de Segovia en dos puntos: sus ideas conciliaristas y sus ideas sobre el Islam. El autor se detiene fundamentalmente en el primero de los temas, que interpreta en contraste con la interpretación de Agamben y asociando las ideas de conciliarismo y paulinismo, viendo en las ideas de Juan de Segovia una expresión del humanismo castellano como tradición diferenciada del erasmismo. El tercer núcleo de estudios se centra en el análisis del humanismo de los profesores de artes de la Universidad de Salamanca en la segunda mitad del siglo XV y las primeras décadas del siglo XVI. Emiliano Fernández Vallina centra su estudio en el texto De optima politia de El Tostado, destacando que este autor inicia en la Universidad de Salamanca del siglo XV una corriente de pensamiento similar a la que autores como Salutati y Bruni protagonizaban en Florencia, y poniendo de relieve que lo hace apoyándose en Aristóteles y en el aristotelismo como un nuevo camino de interpretación del pensamiento político. José Labajos Alonso, que en nuestros días ha publicado las obras de Pedro Martínez de Osma y Fernando de Roa, aborda la significación histórica de estos profesores. Destaca el peso de Aristóteles en el pensamiento de Osma y la relevancia de su aristotelismo, así como el tomismo de su posición y la relevancia del mismo para el nuevo modo de hacer teología. Muestra cómo el primer intento de introducción del tomismo en la Universidad de Salamanca es obra suya, lo que legitima hablar de una primera escuela de Salamanca anterior a la llegada de Vitoria a esta Universidad. En el tercero de los bloques, Cirilo Flórez Miguel replantea de nuevo la interpretación de la fachada de la Universidad de Salamanca, viéndola como el texto político que cierra la evolución de las ideas histórico-políticas que se iniciara en el siglo XV en la primera escuela de Salamanca. Se detiene en las ideas políticas de El Comendador griego (Hernán Núñez de Guzmán) y su posible presencia en la decoración de la fachada. El Congreso se cierra con una reflexión general sobre el humanismo castellano del siglo XV y su significación para el derecho. En un primer bloque, centrado en la literatura, Carlos Moreno Hernández recorre algunos temas como el uso de la lengua vernácula, la retórica, la traducción o los nuevos cristianos que hacen presentes en el humanismo castellano del siglo XV algunos de los conflictos ideológicos presentes en el humanismo italiano del momento. En una línea similar Ana Vian Herrero analiza el diálogo de Lucena De vita felici mostrando cómo en él aparecen temas del humanismo italiano que sirven al autor como inspiración para algunos puntos de su diálogo. Destaca la presencia del epicureísmo, que choca con el aristotelismo dominante en el humanismo castellano (piénsese en Sobre la felicidad de Roa). Por su parte, Herbert Schambeck analiza, ya desde una perspectiva jurídica, el tipo de tomismo que caracteriza la primera escuela de Salamanca y destaca el que podemos llamar «humanismo tomista», su influencia en el Derecho y su peso en el pensamiento salmantino del siglo XV. Heribert Franz Koeck cierra esta serie de reflexiones apuntando a lo que será la segunda escuela de Salamanca y la importancia de la misma para la filosofía del derecho. Así pues, el Congreso ha analizado la situación de la Universidad de Salamanca en ese siglo que va de 1406 a 1516 (o hasta 1529), y en el que esta Universidad, como otras europeas, se transforma de universidad medieval en universidad moderna, transformación que con la renovación de los saberes permite diferenciar hasta tres líneas de pensamiento. La línea escolástica en la que destaca el «humanismo tomista» de los profesores de artes y la aplicación del método de Tomás de Aquino en los estudios teológicos; la línea del humanismo filológico, en la que de la mano de Nebrija y acompañado por profesores como Aires Barbosa, Hernando Alonso y Hernán Núñez de Guzmán triunfa el humanismo moderno; y finalmente la línea de los renovadores de los estudios de artes, con la entrada del nominalismo de la mano de Silíceo y la cristalización de la renovación de los saberes en los famosos Estatutos de 1529, siendo rector Pérez de Oliva. Con estos últimos se cierra el ciclo de renovación que se corresponde con la que hemos denominado Primera Escuela de Salamanca.

Download or read book Contemporary Perspectives on Natural Law written by Ana Marta González and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-13 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Resorting to natural law is one way of conveying the philosophical conviction that moral norms are not merely conventional rules. Accordingly, the notion of natural law has a clear metaphysical dimension, since it involves the recognition that human beings do not conceive themselves as sheer products of society and history. And yet, if natural law is to be considered the fundamental law of practical reason, it must show also some intrinsic relationship to history and positive law. The essays in this book examine this tension between the metaphysical and the practical and how the philosophical elaboration of natural law presents this notion as a "limiting-concept", between metaphysics and ethics, between the mutable and the immutable; between is and ought, and, in connection with the latter, even the tension between politics and eschatology as a double horizon of ethics. This book, contributed to by scholars from Europe and America, is a major contribution to the renewed interest in natural law. It provides the reader with a comprehensive overview of natural law, both from a historical and a systematic point of view. It ranges from the mediaeval synthesis of Aquinas through the early modern elaborations of natural law, up to current discussions on the very possibility and practical relevance of natural law theory for the contemporary mind.

Download or read book Juan de Mariana and Early Modern Spanish Political Thought written by Harald E. Braun and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Jesuit Juan de Mariana (1535-1624) is one of the most misunderstood authors in the history of political thought. His treatise De rege et regis institutione libri tres (1599) is dedicated to Philip III of Spain. It was to present the principles of statecraft by which the young king was to abide. Yet soon after its publication, Catholic and Calvinist politiques in France started branding Mariana a regicide. De rege was said to empower the private individual to kill a legitimate king. Its 'pernicious doctrines' were blamed for the murder of Henry IV in 1610, and it was burned at the order of the parlement of Paris. Modern historians have tended to build on this interpretation and consider De rege a stepping stone towards modern pluralist and democratic thought. Nothing could be further from the truth. The notion of Mariana as an uncompromising theorist of resistance is in fact based on the distorted reading of a few select sentences from the first book of the treatise. This study offers a radical departure from the old view of Mariana as an early modern constitutionalist thinker and advocate of regicide. Thorough analysis of the text as a whole reveals him to be a shrewd and creative operator of political language as well as a champion of the church and bishops of Castile. The argument as a whole is informed by a Catholic-Augustinian view of human nature. Mariana's bleak, at times downright cynical view of man imparts focus and coherence to a text that challenges well established terminological boundaries and political discourses. In the first instance, his deeply pessimistic appraisal of human virtue justifies his disregard of positive law. He is thus able to mould diverse elements extracted from Roman and canon law, scholastic theology and humanist literature into a deliberately equivocal discourse of reason of state. Finally, this secular interpretation of the world of politics is cleverly yoked to a thoroughly clerical agenda of reform. In fact, reason of state is made to propagate an episcopal monarchy. De rege is exceptional in that it strings together a curious scholastic theory of the origins of society, a conservative ideology of absolute monarchy and a breathtakingly radical vision of theocratic renewal of Spanish government and society. Juan de Mariana and Early Modern Political Thought elucidates the differentiated nature of political debate in Habsburg Spain. It confirms the complexity of Spanish political life in the later sixteenth and early seventeenth century. Complementing recent work on Catholic political thought, the European reception of Machiavelli, and Spanish Habsburg government, this study offers a more complete and holistic picture of early modern Spanish political culture.

Download or read book The Roots of International Law Les fondements du droit international written by and published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. This book was released on 2013-11-29 with total page 778 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays gathers contributions from leading international lawyers from different countries, generations and angles with the aim of highlighting the multifaceted history of international law. This volume questions and analyses the origins and foundations of the international legal system. A particular attention is devoted to Hugo Grotius as one of the founding fathers of the law of nations. Several contributions further question the positivist tradition initiated by Vattel and endorsed by scholars of the 19th Century. This immersion in the intellectual origins of international law is enriched by an inquiry into the practice of the law of nations, including its main patterns and changing evolution as well as the role of non-western traditions and the impact of colonization. Le présent ouvrage réunit les contributions de juristes internationaux reconnus en vue d’éclairer les multiples facettes de l’histoire du droit international public. L’ouvrage analyse et questionne les origines et les fondements de l’ordre juridique international. Une attention toute particulière est dédiée à Hugo Grotius l’un des pères fondateurs du droit international. D’autres contributions questionnent également la tradition positiviste initiée par Vattel et confortée par la doctrine du 19ème siècle. Cette immersion dans les origines doctrinales du système juridique international est enrichie par l’étude de la pratique du droit international public, son évolution ainsi que le rôle des traditions non-occidentales et l’impact de la colonisation.

Download or read book Empire Humanism and Rights written by José María Beneyto and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-12-10 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with Vitoria, Charles V and Erasmus. Vitoria’s ideas had a major influence on Charles V and his European and American policy. In turn, Erasmus’ humanism was decisive in the formation of a new international order intellectually discussed by Vitoria and put into practice by the Emperor. Shedding new light on the influence of Francisco de Vitoria and Erasmus on Charles V’s imperial policy, the book’s goal is to explore the impact of Vitoria’s thought with regard to the history of, and contemporary issues in, international law, while also comparing his thinking with that of the well-known humanist Erasmus and assessing their respective influences on the imperial policy of Charles V.

Download or read book The Transatlantic Las Casas written by Rady Roldán-Figueroa and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-11-14 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adding to the momentum of Lascasian Studies, this interdisciplinary effort of seventeen scholars offers sophisticated explorations of colonial Latin American and early modern Iberian studies.

Download or read book Law from Below written by Elisabeth Rain Kincaid and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2024-03-01 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A constructive model of engagement with unjust laws from the ground up The current political atmosphere would suggest that law is imposed only from above, specifically by the chief executive acting upon some sort of perceived populist mandate. In Law from Below, Elisabeth Rain Kincaid argues that the theology of the early modern legal theorist and theologian, Francisco Suárez, SJ may be successfully retrieved to provide a constructive model of legal engagement for Christians today. Suárez’s theology was developed to combat an authoritarian view of law, suggesting that communities may work to change law from the ground up as they function within the legal system, not just outside it. Law from Below suggests that Suárez’s theory of law provides a theologically robust way to mount a counter-narrative to contemporary authoritarian theories of law, while still acknowledging the good in the rule of law and its imposition by a legislative authority. Suárez acknowledges the crucial contribution of citizens to improving law’s moral content, without removing the importance of law’s own authority or the role of the lawgiver. Law from Below argues that the dialogue between legislators and the community provides Christian activists with a range of options for constructively engaging with law in order to have a positive impact on society.

Download or read book Ideology and Inquisition written by Martin Austin Nesvig and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first comprehensive treatment in English of the ideology and practice of the Inquisitional censors, focusing on the case of Mexico from the 1520s to the 1630s. Others have examined the effects of censorship, but Martin Nesvig employs a nontraditional approach that focuses on the inner logic of censorship in order to examine the collective mentality, ideological formation, and practical application of ideology of the censors themselves. Nesvig shows that censorship was not only about the regulation of books but about censorship in the broader sense as a means to regulate Catholic dogma and the content of religious thought. In Mexico, decisions regarding censorship involved considerable debate and disagreement among censors, thereby challenging the idea of the Inquisition as a monolithic institution. Once adapted to cultural circumstances in Mexico, the Inquisition and the Index produced not a weapon of intellectual terror but a flexible apparatus of control.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Christianity written by David Thomas Orique and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-23 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By 2025, Latin America's population of observant Christians will be the largest in the world. Nonetheless, studies examining the exponential growth of global Christianity tend to overlook this region, focusing instead on Africa and Asia. Research on Christianity in Latin America provides a core point of departure for understanding the growth and development of Christianity in the "Global South." In The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Christianity an interdisciplinary contingent of scholars examines Latin American Christianity in all of its manifestations from the colonial to the contemporary period. The essays here provide an accessible background to understanding Christianity in Latin America. Spanning the era from indigenous and African-descendant people's conversion to and transformation of Catholicism during the colonial period through the advent of Liberation Theology in the 1960s and conversion to Pentecostalism and Charismatic Catholicism, The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Christianity is the most complete introduction to the history and trajectory of this important area of modern Christianity.

Download or read book The Unheard Voice of Law in Bartolom de Las Casas s Brev sima Relaci n de la Destruici n de las Indias written by David T. Orique and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Unheard Voice of Law in Bartolomé de las Casas’s Brevísima relación de la destruición de las Indias reinterprets Las Casas’s controversial treatise as a legal document, whose legal character is linked to civil and ecclesial genres of the Early Modern and late Renaissance juridical tradition. Bartolomé de las Casas proclaimed: "I have labored to inquire about, study, and discern the law; I have plumbed the depths and have reached the headwaters." The Unheard Voice also plumbs the depths of Las Casas’s voice of law in his widely read and highly controversial Brevísima relación—a legal document published and debated since the 16th century. This original reinterpretation of his Very Brief Account uncovers the juridical approach voiced in his defense of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The Unheard Voice innovatively asserts that the Brevísima relación’s legal character is intimately linked to civil and ecclesial genres of the late Renaissance juridical tradition. This paradigm-shifting book contextualizes the formation of Las Casas’s juridical voice in canon law and theology—initially as a secular cleric, subsequently as a Dominican friar, and finally as a diocesan bishop—and demonstrates how his experienced juridical voice fought for justice in trans-Atlantic debates about Indigenous peoples’ level of humanity, religious freedom, enslavement, and conquest. Reaching the headwaters of Las Casas’s hitherto unheard juridical voice of law in the Brevísima relación provides readers with a previously unheard interpretation—an appealing voice for readers and students of this powerful Early Modern text that still resonates today. The Unheard Voice of Law is a valuable companion text for many in the disciplines of literature, history, theology, law, and philosophy who read Bartolomé de las Casas’s Very Brief Account and study his life, labor, and legacy.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Sources of International Law written by Jean d'Aspremont and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-19 with total page 1199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of the sources of international law inevitably raises some well-known scholarly controversies: where do the rules of international law come from? And more precisely: through which processes are they made, how are they ascertained, and where does the international legal order begin and end? This is the static question of the pedigree of international legal rules and the boundaries of the international legal order. Second, what are the processes through which these rules are made? This is the dynamic question of the making of these rules and of the exercise of public authority in international law. The Oxford Handbook of the Sources of International Law is the very first comprehensive work of its kind devoted to the question of the sources of international law. It provides an accessible and systematic overview of the key issues and debates around the sources of international law. It also offers an authoritative theoretical guide for anyone studying or working within but also outside international law wishing to understand one of its most foundational questions. This Handbook features original essays by leading international law scholars and theorists from a range of traditions, nationalities and perspectives, reflecting the richness and diversity of scholarship in this area.

Download or read book Theologians and Contract Law written by Wim Decock and published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. This book was released on 2013 with total page 744 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In "Theologians and Contract Law," Wim Decock offers an account of the moral roots of modern contract law. He explains why theologians in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries built a systematic contract law around the principles of freedom and fairness.

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy written by Marco Sgarbi and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-10-27 with total page 3618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gives accurate and reliable summaries of the current state of research. It includes entries on philosophers, problems, terms, historical periods, subjects and the cultural context of Renaissance Philosophy. Furthermore, it covers Latin, Arabic, Jewish, Byzantine and vernacular philosophy, and includes entries on the cross-fertilization of these philosophical traditions. A unique feature of this encyclopedia is that it does not aim to define what Renaissance philosophy is, rather simply to cover the philosophy of the period between 1300 and 1650.

Download or read book The Invention of Custom written by Francesca Iurlaro and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-23 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of customary international law, although differently formulated, is already present in early modern European debates on natural law and the law of nations. However, no scholarly monograph has, until now, addressed the relationship between custom and the European natural law and ius gentium tradition. This book tells that neglected story, and offers a solid conceptual framework to contextualize and understand the 'problematic of custom', namely how to identify its normative content. Natural law doctrines, and the different ways in which they help construct human reason, provided custom with such normative content. This normative content consists of a set of fundamental moral values that help identify the status of custom as either a fundamental feature or an original source of ius gentium. This book explores what cultural values and practices facilitated the emergence of custom and rendered it into as a source of the law of nations, and how they did so. Two crucial issues form the core of the book's analysis. Firstly, it qualifies the nature of the interrelation between natural law and ius gentium, explaining why it matters in relation to our understanding of the idea of custom. Second, the book claims that the process of custom formation as a source of law calls into question the role of the authority of history. The interpretation of the past through this approach can thus be described as one of 'invention'.