11 - Codex Iuris Gentium (Praefatio) (1693)

Summary

In 1693 Leibniz published a large collection of medieval documents supporting the position of the Empire against the claims of the French. To this collection he attached a preface, about half of which is translated below. In it Leibniz showed that he was moving a little away from his earlier view that the Republic of Christendom could be restored, and toward a more modern position which accepted the existence of independent national states. But the most important part of the preface is that containing an excellent statement of his general theory of justice as the charity of the wise, which he attempts to relate to international principles. There are also a great many observations about the psychology of rulers which show that Leibniz could, when he liked, be fairly ‘realistic’. (The present translation, from Latin, follows the text to be found in vol. IV of the Dutens edition. The parts of the text which have been translated are those which contain the main theoretical propositions; what has been cut are mainly historical examples, most of them now rather obscure.)

1. Although the scope of this work is clear from the title, with the attached preface, and particularly from the index of documents, it seemed to me nonetheless that it would be useful to prefix a somewhat more ample introduction, in order to speak of the proper use of public acts, and to show by examples what sort of thing can be expected from our collection, indicating at the same time the sources of the true law of nature and of nations.