Suárez (1548˗1617) and Grotius (1583−1645)

From natural law to the law of nations. History and human becoming

Abstract

In the articulation proposed by Suarez (1548˗1617) and Grotius (1583-1645) between natural law, the law of nations and civil law, the foundation and future of positive human law - politically and historically expressed by the latter two - are at stake, since natural law, because it manifests an origin that exceeds the human will, can only be an invariably just principle. For Suarez, this issue is ontological and political, since it is inseparable from the being of individuals and the specificity of their relationships, as well as from their insertion into the world order. For Grotius, from the point of view of the study and conduct of human practice, this issue is linked to a juridical anthropology whose object is human nature, the bonds that men are obliged to establish between themselves, and the different ways in which they arrange the human community in a given space. In this dual orientation, there is a shared commitment, based on the construction of a legal space, to collective life and the value to be attributed to it, as a fundamental act of existence, giving new meaning to the link between theory and practice.