Book contents
- Christianity and International Law
- Law and Christianity
- Christianity and International Law
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Christianity and International Law: An Introduction
- 2 The Byzantine Commonwealth and the Emerging Features of a Law of Nations in the First Millennium
- 3 Christianity and the Birth of Ambassadorial Deontology: Some Historical Notes
- 4 Formation and Refiguration of the Canon Law on Trade with Infidels (c.1200–c.1600)
- 5 God, Sovereignty, and the Morality of Intervention outside Europe
- 6 The Significance of Christian Charity to International Law
- 7 Hugo Grotius: On Freedom of the Seas and Human Nature
- 8 Ius gentium et naturae: The Human Conscience and Early Modern International Law
- 9 Legalizing Antisemitism? The Legacy of Savigny’s Roman(tic) Law
- 10 Missionary Knowledge and the Empirical Foundations of Modern International Legal Thought
- 11 Standards for a Righteous and Civilized World: Religion and America’s Emergence as a Global Power
- 12 International Protestantism and Its Changing Religious Freedoms
- 13 Beyond the Freedom of Worship: The Contested Meaning of Religious Freedom in International Human Rights Law and Politics, 1945–1967
- 14 Process Theology and a Pluralistic Foundation for Human Rights
- 15 Christianity and Human Rights Law: Orthodox Perspectives
- 16 Conquest, Sacred Sites, and “Religion” in a Time of Crisis
- 17 Constantine’s Legacy: Preserving Empire While Undermining International Law
- 18 Hopelessly Practicing Law: Asylum Seekers, Advocates, and Hostile Jurisdictions
- 19 The Hidden Theology of International Legal Positivism
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
6 - The Significance of Christian Charity to International Law
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 May 2021
Book contents
- Christianity and International Law
- Law and Christianity
- Christianity and International Law
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Christianity and International Law: An Introduction
- 2 The Byzantine Commonwealth and the Emerging Features of a Law of Nations in the First Millennium
- 3 Christianity and the Birth of Ambassadorial Deontology: Some Historical Notes
- 4 Formation and Refiguration of the Canon Law on Trade with Infidels (c.1200–c.1600)
- 5 God, Sovereignty, and the Morality of Intervention outside Europe
- 6 The Significance of Christian Charity to International Law
- 7 Hugo Grotius: On Freedom of the Seas and Human Nature
- 8 Ius gentium et naturae: The Human Conscience and Early Modern International Law
- 9 Legalizing Antisemitism? The Legacy of Savigny’s Roman(tic) Law
- 10 Missionary Knowledge and the Empirical Foundations of Modern International Legal Thought
- 11 Standards for a Righteous and Civilized World: Religion and America’s Emergence as a Global Power
- 12 International Protestantism and Its Changing Religious Freedoms
- 13 Beyond the Freedom of Worship: The Contested Meaning of Religious Freedom in International Human Rights Law and Politics, 1945–1967
- 14 Process Theology and a Pluralistic Foundation for Human Rights
- 15 Christianity and Human Rights Law: Orthodox Perspectives
- 16 Conquest, Sacred Sites, and “Religion” in a Time of Crisis
- 17 Constantine’s Legacy: Preserving Empire While Undermining International Law
- 18 Hopelessly Practicing Law: Asylum Seekers, Advocates, and Hostile Jurisdictions
- 19 The Hidden Theology of International Legal Positivism
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Charity has a rich association with European international law. As a Christian virtue, charity drove the imperial exploits of Christian missions during the Age of Discovery in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This is when the early Christian writers of a modern, European international law such as Francisco de Vitoria (1486–1546), Francisco Suárez (1548–1617), Richard Zouche (1590–1661), Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) and Cornelis van Bynkershoek (1673–1743) emerged, and the Peace of Westphalia is said to have established a law of nations amongst “a European society of sovereign states.” Christian charity, it was believed, offered non-Christian peoples in the “New World” eternal salvation, and it became a prime justification for the universalization of a European international law – all of which Anghie points out resulted from the process by which European doctrines and beliefs “were transferred to, or imposed upon, the non-European world, principally through the mechanism of colonialism.”
Keywords
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- Christianity and International LawAn Introduction, pp. 115 - 138Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
References
Recommended Reading
Brett, Annabel S. Changes of State: Nature and the Limits of the City in Early Modern Natural Law. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Dorsett, Shaunnagh, and McVeigh, Shaun. “Jurisprudences of Jurisdiction: Matters of Public Authority.” Griffith Law Review 23, no. 4 (2014): 569–88.Google Scholar
Houston, R. A. “What Did the Royal Almoner Do in Britain and Ireland, c. 1450–1700?” English Historical Review 125, no. 513 (2010): 279–313.Google Scholar
McClure, Julia. “The Charitable Bonds of the Spanish Empire: The Casa de Contratación as an Institution of Charity.” New Global Studies 12, no. 2 (2018): 157–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsham, Alexandra. Charitable Hatred: Tolerance and Intolerance in England, 1500–1700. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006.Google Scholar