Humanitarian intervention is a staple of current discussions about relations among states. Should powerful states interfere in the internal affairs of weaker ones, particularly those identified as failed states, in order to bring peace and stability when it is clear that the existing government can not do so? The concept is an old one, not a new one. European nations that engaged in overseas expansion generally justified their conquests on the grounds that they would seek to civilise and Christianise the (...) peoples whom they encountered. The most extensive discussion of the right ? or the responsibility ? of strong states to intervene on a humanitarian basis occurred among sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish intellectuals who sought to justify the Spanish conquest of the Americas. The most famous of these figures was Francisco de Vitoria (1485?1546) whose De Indis outlined all of the arguments that could be raised for and against such intervention. His line of argument suggests that in the long run, intervention even with the best of intentions, may well lead to tragic consequences. It may even be hubris, the sin of those who would play God. (shrink)

In 1538–39 Francisco de Vitoria delivered two relections:De IndisandDe iure belli.This article distills from these writings the topic of free trade as a “human right” in accordance withius gentiumor the “law of peoples.” The right to free trade is rooted in a more fundamental right to communication and association. The rights to travel, to dwell, and to migrate precede the right to trade, which is also closely connected to the rights to preach, to protect converts, and to constitute Christian (...) princes. This has significant repercussions on the field of business ethics: the right to free trade is ultimately founded directly on natural law and indirectly on divine law; trade is not independent of ethics; and trade is presented as an opportunity to develop the virtues of justice and friendship, among other repercussions. Vitoria is portrayed as a defender of private initiative and free markets. (shrink)

En el V Centenario del magisterio de Francisco de Vitoria presentamos su concepto de virtud como vida lograda. Para ello, se compara su pensamiento primero con la noción de bienaventuranza de san Agustín, que presenta el camino de santidad para los cristianos. En segundo lugar, se tiene en cuenta la idea de felicidad de Santo Tomás como meta de la vida humana, íntimamente ligada con el desarrollo de las virtudes en cuanto hábitos. De esta manera, se plantea la santidad (...) como una vida en plenitud abierta al don de la gracia. Por último, se estudia las aportaciones personales de Vitoria a la vida lograda dentro del contexto de su época. Así, se relaciona la concepción de vida lograda de Vitoria con la santidad dentro del contexto de la escolástica del siglo XVI renovada por el humanismo y, en particular, relacionándola con el catecismo del Concilio de Trento. (shrink)

In general, the development of the theory of the legal system has focused on the contributions of legal positivism authors, leaving to one side the contributions of natural law theory. This study seeks to rebuild the theory of the legal system developed by the School of Salamanca’s founder, Francisco de Vitoria, showing its explanatory advantages in comparison with the first analytical legal theory of legal system formulated by John Austin. This study shows that, just as in Austin, it is (...) possible in Francisco de Vitoria to reconstruct the existence and identity criteria of legal systems from the notions of command and sovereignty. These findings allow us to maintain that 300 years before Austin, and in a non-analytical environment, Francisco de Vitoria developed a theory of legal system. (shrink)

The figure of Francisco de Vitoria, founder of the so-called School of Salamanca and one of the most important professors of the University of Salamanca in the 16th century, has been considered on different occasions as an admirable model of a university professor. On one side, this article describes the scientific commitment of the School of Salamanca as a sign of an important dimension of university life: research. On the other side, the main features of Vitoria as a teacher (...) will be exposed. His teaching abilities will be taken into account, but also his capacity to involve other colleagues in a joint search for truth will be described. Finally, the renewing character of Vitoria’s Thomism in the framework of philosophy as a great ally of scientific dialogue will be considered. (shrink)

Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1485-1546) is well-known for his philosophical contributions to natural rights and international law. However, his extensive work on the conflict between civil authority and the authority of the Catholic Church has been largely neglected by political theorists and intellectual historians. While scholars have recently recognized the significant role played by natural law in the history of political secularism, they have focused almost exclusively on the “modern” natural law theories of Hobbes, Pufendorf, and Thomasius, as opposed (...) to the “scholastic” natural law of early modern Thomists like Vitoria. This essay undertakes an analysis of Vitoria’s use of natural law theory in his approach to civil-ecclesiastical conflict. Contrary to critiques from the “modern” natural lawyers, it argues that Vitoria’s idea of natural law spearheads a forceful defence of the autonomy of civil power from ecclesiastical power. Based on his sharp distinction between the natural and the supernatural spheres of human life, Vitoria argues for a “dualist” position in which civil and ecclesiastical powers are independent and equally binding on human consciences. The essay acknowledges that Vitoria’s dualism ultimately gives way to his endorsement of papal supremacy over all Christian princes. However, this papalist conclusion does not follow from Vitoria’s natural law theory but rather from an opposing political principle: the notion of the universal Christian commonwealth. (shrink)

A proposta deste artigo é relacionar a teoria da guerra justa de Francisco de Vitória e sua teoria do valor mercantil. A hipótese aqui desenvolvida é que Vitória introduz a liberdade comercial como um dos móbiles que, quando impedidos, justificam uma guerra contra as populações nativas da América, porque, alguns anos antes, já desenvolvera uma teoria do valor, que torna sem fundamento a anterior proibição teológica do lucro comercial. Justificada assim a guerra, ele defende uma teoria dos direitos do (...) vencedor, que inclui a legitimidade da deposição dos governantes, a tomada de terras e bens e a escravização dos súditos. Em outras palavras, para Vitória, a guerra justa, motivada por interesses comerciais, torna legítima a colonização. (shrink)

In discussing the works of 16th-century theorists Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili, this article examines how two different conceptions of a global legal community affect the legal character of the international order and the obligatory force of international law. For Vitoria the legal bindingness of ius gentium necessarily presupposes an integrated character of the global commonwealth that leads him to as it were ascribe legal personality to the global community as a whole. But then its legal status and (...) its consequences have to be clarified. For Gentili on the other hand, sovereign states in their plurality are the pinnacle of the legal order(s). His model of a globally valid ius gentium then oscillates between being analogous to private law, depending on individual acceptance by states and being natural law, appearing in a certain sense as a form rather of morality than of law. (shrink)

The history of prudence is often depicted as a history of loss. According to one version, the scientification of moral knowledge in medieval philosophy calls into question the role of prudence in moral action. And while Thomas Aquinas still tries to integrate prudence into a scientific framework of moral knowledge, the Salmantine theologian Francisco de Vitoria eventually abandons this approach and excludes prudence from moral knowledge altogether. I would like to argue, however, that Vitoria plays a different role in (...) this development: He does not exclude prudence from scientific moral knowledge but gives an integrated account that Aquinas lacks. But this integration comes at a price because he is eventually unable to explain how prudence allows an agent to deal with the problem of contingency in action. (shrink)

The work of Francisco de Vitoria has always been related to the founding of the Salamanca School and the defense of the rights of the Indians, as well as with the origin of other similar groups as Coimbra, Évora or Mexico that constitute the Iberian School of Peace. But in recent years it has been questioned that Francisco de Vitoria was the only creator of these schools of thought. Some researchers affirm that there were other thinkers before him (...) who should be recognized for this merit. The purpose of this study is to show the originality of Victoria’s doctrines and to see how they were assimilated by the members of the groups that form the Iberian School of Peace. From our point of view, with independence of the recent debates that have emerged around him, Francisco de Vitoria should continue to be considered the creator of the School of Salamanca as well as of the Iberian School of Peace. (shrink)

Contrary to the received understanding that Francisco de Vitoria and Francisco Suárez ruled out religious war by grounding just cause in natural law, they supported a robust view of papal authority for war when necessary for the defense of the church against heretics, schismatics, and pagans as well as for the spread of Christianity and Christendom throughout the world. They believed that religious wars were in accord with natural law as a means to its fulfillment in Christianity, as (...) a justification for the defense of the church as the one true faith, and as a moral obligation to provide all of humanity with the opportunity to receive Christian truth and grace. The neo‐Thomists' vigorous support for religious war was in the mainstream of the Christian just war tradition from the time of the wars against pagans in the early middle ages through their own time. This finding and the continuation into the modern era of sanctified patriotism stemming from the mixing of church and state especially during war that began in early Middle Ages, along with the historic roots of the recently prominent presumption against war, argue for a more complex understanding of the normative Christian just war tradition than that found among supporters of the classic interpretation of that tradition. (shrink)

Readers have found at least two distinct and perhaps contradictory accounts of civil authority in the works of Francisco de Vitoria, and some hold that Vitoria himself holds contradictory positions. This article argues that Vitoria holds one consistent position, namely that civil power is based on a necessity that is rooted in human nature, and in particular on the final cause of human life, and not on a necessity that is a result of any historical decision or process on (...) its own. Rulers receive from the community their authority, which is a power to act on behalf of the community. In general, scholars have failed to consider how Vitoria’s understanding of civil power is Aristotelian and Thomistic to the extent that it is based on the thesis that the political community is natural in a way similar to how families and individuals are natural. (shrink)

Se explora el fundamento que proporciona Vitoria al dominium rerum, es decir, la capacidad del hombre de ser dueño de las cosas. En primer lugar, exponemos sucintamente la concepción vitoriana de la teología como saber que puede y debe ocuparse de cuestiones temporales. Después, se estudia el tema del dominio en su comentario al tratado De restitutione de la Summa theologiae de Tomás de Aquino. Por último, se examina cómo aborda la capacidad humana de dominio en la relectio De indis, (...) donde defiende que los indios americanos son capaces de gobernarse a sí mismos y tener propiedades. Vitoria desarrolla el pensamiento de Tomás de Aquino aplicándolo a nuevos problemas. Según Vitoria, el fundamento del dominio sobre las cosas se encuentra en el dominio sobre uno mismo, que se apoya, a su vez, en la naturaleza humana. Por consiguiente, gozan de dominio incluso las personas que sólo puedan hacer un uso limitado de su razón y su libertad. (shrink)

Victoria's idea of International Society is not an unfeasible Utopia. The harmony between experience/reason and reason/faith which he imbibes from St. Thomas Aquinas can be appreciated in his methodology. His anthropology is also realistic, that is to say, objectivistic: human nature is the same in all men; their dignity and rights as persons are not given or taken by their faith. Vitoria applies to the Indians the Tomist thesis on the person and the relationship faith/reason, nature/over nature.

Las copias de los manuscritos de las Relecciones de Francisco de Vitoria se multiplicaron, y enseguida atravesaron el océano, para llegar muy pronto a manos de universitarios y misioneros. En España llegaron a la corte imperial, provocando una rápida censura, y al humanista J. Ginés de Sepúlveda, que asume el texto como favorable a su imperialismo. En ultramar el catedrático agustino Alonso de Veracruz aprueba y enriquece sus argumentos, y el dominico Bartolomé de Las Casas se queda sólo con (...) los condicionantes del propio Vitoria. Creo que esos condicionantes merecen ser conocidos en su entorno para su justa valoración. Lo dedico a los grandes vitoriólogos que honraron con sus estudios a esta revista.The manuscript copies of the Relecciones by Francisco de Vitoria multiplied and crossed the ocean to fall very soon in the hands of university students and missionaries . In Spain they reached the imperial court causing a rapid censorship and the humanist J. Ginés de Sepúlveda who takes the text as in favor of his imperialism. Overseas the Augustinian professor of university Alonso de Veracruz approves and enriches his arguments, the Dominican Bartolome de las Casas remains alone with the own Vitoria’s Condicionnantes. I think that those Condicionantes are worth being known in their context to value them appropriately. I devote it to Vitoria’s great friends who honored this journal with their studies. (shrink)

En este artículo abordo los dos argumentos más frecuentemente aducidos en defensa del principio de composicionalidad y muestro que la versión de los mismos ofrecida por Fodor y Lepore malinterpreta la productividad y la sistematicidad de los lenguajes humanos; ello les conduce a una posición atomista y representacionalista acerca del significado y los conceptos. Defiendo que un enfoque pragmatista del lenguaje y el pensamiento no sólo es compatible con la composicionalidad, sino que ofrece una explicación más adecuada de la sistematicidad (...) y la productividad. (shrink)

La doctrina de Vitoria con respecto a que los derechos humanos —naturales o «de gentes», no importa si al margen de la fe y el cristianismo—, están muy por encima del poder y la jurisdicción del Papa o el Emperador, se infiltré de tal forma en el modo de pensar posterior, que, a pesar de haber olvidado al propio Vitoria como su fundador o, al menos, su principal impulsor, prevaleció en la mente de los grandes pensadores posteriores y se va (...) viendo calcada tanto en la realidad histórica o las relaciones sociales de nuestro tiempo, como en la propia Constitución de las diferentes democracias actuales. (shrink)

Following Thomas Aquinas, Francisco de Vitoria's analysis of justice in exchanges takes place by commenting on the corresponding questions of the Summa Theologica. The identification of the just price with that of common estimation occurs under a sufficient concurrence of sellers and buyers. A high level of concurrence limits the ability to take advantage of the need on the other side of the market. This fact guaranties a full consent of the parties involved in trading. Under conditions of market (...) power or when some authority fixes a legal price, just price should also be taken as a normative ideal. (shrink)

This article intends to argue that Francisco de Vitoria’s conception of the Spanish Conquest of America is based upon notions that stem from various sources of the 14th and 15th Century. One of his most important source is the Opus septipertitum de contractibus, written by the German theologian Conradus Summenhart, whom Vitoria quotes frequently. By comparing both thinkers it can be shown that Vitoria’s basic terminology concerning rights and dominion is in greatly indebted to Summenhart’s account.