humans, everyone immediately recognizes it without training. But this text is not from the th century nor by a jurist: it is from the th century non-jurist humanist François Rabelais. Certainly this approach is not his invention. Indeed, immediately before in his book, discussinginter aliathe relationship between colors and human emotions, he declared that this connection was imposed by humans but received by the consent of everyone, and called by the philosophers ius gentium, universal law valid in all countries. In Rabelais we thus also have the conjunction of natural law and of ius gentiumin one of its senses. The approach must have been common though I have not found an equally early, clear statement. But in the context of the present talk I wish to stress authority: the continuing impact of Justinian’s absurd treatment on the th century Institutes of local law.27 In Appendix I have a quotation from earlyth century Hungary, Stephanus de Werbewcz. Stair’s Institutions of the Law of Scotland () seems to be by far the largest of the local Institutes of the th century, and scarcely deserves the title of an introductory work. Its discussion of the types of law is correspondingly complicated. As do other writers,28 Stair relies on the Bible as well as on Roman law. He declares that the three precepts of Roman law, “to live honestly, to not injure another, to give to each his own,” are the eternal laws, being based in accordance with the nature of God, and this, he says, 27 Not entirely free from the impact of Justinian’sInstitutes is Hugo Grotius, Inleiding tot de Hollandsche Rechts-geleertheyd (first published 1631); 1.2.3. ff. As is to be expected, writers of the period writing books on natural law may take a view that excludes influence of theInstitutes. In these natural law has nothing to do with animals, but considers human obligations to oneself, to other humans and to God; and this is followed by an explanation, deriving therefrom, of the nature of private and public legal obligations. Ius gentiumis simply International Law. For me, the supreme example of such works is Chrisitan Wolff (1679-1754), Institutiones Juris Naturae et Gentium. 28 A good example is Ulrich Huber, Positiones Iuris(first edition 1682), 1.1.10ff. A very different informative version is found in Hugo Grotius, De Iure Belli ac Pacis(first edition 1625), 1.1.10 ff.
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