The medieval and early modern legacy of rights: the rights to punish and to property

Boucher, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7305-2966 and Boisen, Camilla 2016. The medieval and early modern legacy of rights: the rights to punish and to property. Bain, William, ed. Medieval Foundations of International Relations, London: Routledge, pp. 148-165. (10.4324/9781315758213-9)

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Abstract

This chapter explores how the medieval and early modern conceptions of rights relating to property and punishment for violations of the natural law still have resonance, and reverberate in the modern framework of international relations. In the scholastics' just war discourse, war was essentially punitive in response to an injustice received from an enemy. Punitive wars were the common feature in just war theory during the medieval period. Sepulveda's principal contention was that the Indians were barbarians who committed abominable crimes against natural law, such as cannibalism, devil worship, and human sacrifice. For Sepulveda, the right to punish is anchored in the absolute duty of all Christians prescribed by the law of nature and divine law. The moral legacy of Grotius's doctrine of punishment reverberates in modern times, despite having no currency in modern customary international law. The right to private property raised crucial practical and philosophical issues in early modern political thought, and is often the corollary of punishment.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Department of Politics and International Relations (POLIR)
Subjects:	J Political Science > JZ International relations
Publisher:	Routledge
ISBN:	9781315758213
Last Modified:	25 Apr 2024 14:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/92262

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