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Just War and Regular War in Sixteenth Century Spanish Doctrine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Peter Haggenmacher
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Extract

The ethical and legal problems raised by war loom large in the thinking of the theologians and jurists of Spain's Golden Age. In their reflections and pronouncements on these problems, however, they were not starting from nothing. They had before them a large body of teachings, mostly dating from the Middle Ages. An accurate assessment of their role in this field must therefore begin by recalling those mediaeval teachings on war. We shall thus start with an outline of those teachings, before moving on to consider how they were assimilated and modified by the Spanish authors of the sixteenth century.

Type
500th Anniversary of the Discovery of the Americas
Information
International Review of the Red Cross (1961 - 1997) , Volume 32 , Special Issue 290: 1492 - 1992: 500th Anniversary of the Discovery of the Americas , October 1992 , pp. 434 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 1992

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Footnotes

*

This article is a revised version of a lecture reproduced in L'Espagne el la formation du droit des gens moderne. Acta Colloquii Bruxellensis, 22.X.1985. Ed. G. van Hecke. In Aedibus Peeters, Lovanii, 1988, pp. 27–37 (Colloquia Europalia, IV).

References

1 For an outline of the development of this doctrine, see Haggenmacher, Peter. Grotius el la doctrine de la guerre juste, PUF, Paris, 1983, pp. 11–49 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (Publications de l'Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales, Genève).

2 A variant of this conception, already hinted at in the sixteenth century by Francisco de Vitoria, is policing by one or more States acting on behalf of the international community, with or without the blessing of an international organization.

3 For this somewhat unusual expression, see e.g. Bourquin, Maurice, “Grotius est-il le père du droit des gens?” in Grandes figures et grandes œuvres juridiques, Genèva, 1948, pp. 92–93 Google Scholar (Mémoires publiés par la faculté de droit de l'Université de Genève, No. 6). The adjective “regular” is used in the same sense as in “regular combatant” or “regular armed forces”, the expression “regular war” being intended simply to generalize the connotation they have in common, namely that of a purely formal congruity with certain “regulations”, as perfectly symbolized by the “Hague Regulations”.

4 To be sure, the Romans were not unaware of the notion of just war (bellum justum vel pium; purum piumque duellum) and the idea of just cause of war does appear in Cicero's philosophical reflections (e.g. De officiis, I, (11) 36) or in Livy's historical accounts ( Ab urbe condita, I, 32 Google Scholar). The fact nevertheless remains that in their eyes bellum justum implied above all observance of certain formal requirements; this is the conception implicit in the texts of professional jurisconsults such as Ulpian or Pomponius (Digest, 49, 15, 24 and 50, 16, 118), whence it passed on to the Middle Ages.

5 Haggenmacher, P., op. cit., pp. 23–32.Google Scholar

6 Aquinas, Saint Thomas, Summa theologica, IIa IIae, q. 40, art. 1.Google Scholar

7 See note 4 above, i.f.

8 On this literature, see Haggenmacher, P., op. cit., pp. 39–40.Google Scholar

9 The mediaeval jus belli is admirably described by Keen, Maurice H., The Laws of War in the Late Middle Ages, London and Toronto. 1965 Google Scholar. See also, from a slightly different point of view, Meron, Theodor, “Shakespeare's Henry the Fifth and the Law of War”, American Journal of International Law, 86, 1992, pp. 1–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 One notable exception to this silence should however be highlighted in the person of Raphaël Fulgosius; see Haggenmacher, P., op. cit., pp. 203–206 and 284–288.Google Scholar

11 Vitoria, Francisco de, De indis recenter inventis relectio prior Google Scholar, i. pr., in Obras de Francisco de Vitoria, Relecciones teológicas, ed. by Teófilo, Urdánoz, Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, Madrid, 1960, p. 642.Google Scholar

12 Relectio de jure belli, 32 Google Scholar, in Obras, p. 838.Google Scholar

13 See, e.g. Johnson, James T., Just War Tradition and the Restraint of War. A Moral and Historical Inquiry, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1981, pp. 97–99.Google Scholar

14 At the place in Relectio de jure belli indicated in note 12 above, there is no question of any humanitarian restriction, whether bilateral or even only unilateral; the problem which concerns Vitoria at that juncture is the duty to restore the property taken in an unjust war, as the rest of the text indicates ( Relectio de jure belli, 33 Google Scholar, in Obras, pp. 838–849 Google Scholar). In Relectio de indis, III, 6 Google Scholar, ( Obras, pp. 712–713 Google Scholar) where the question of just war on both sides is also raised, Vitoria does admit that on account of the Indians' excusable ignorance, the Spanish should not subject them to the utmost rigours of the law of war. Yet very significantly his view remains unilateral and totally within the logic of just war: the state of mind of the Indians is no more than an extenuating circumstance which the Spanish, who on account of their objectively just cause have in a way become judges of their vanquished adversaries, must take into account in deciding on the sentence.

15 Haggenmacher, P., op. cit., pp. 292–295 and 435–437.Google Scholar

16 Ayala, Balthazar de, De jure et officiis bellicis et disciplina militari libri tres Google Scholar, Douai, 1582, 1, 2, folios 5–24.

17 Haggenmacher, P., op. cit., p. 293.Google Scholar

18 Haggenmacher, P., op. cit., pp. 597–612.Google Scholar

19 As a supplement to this study, see P. Haggenmacher “La place de Francisco de Vitoria parmi les fondateurs du droit international» in Actualité de la pensée juridique de Francisco de Vitoria, Travaux de la Journée juridique organisée à Louvain-la-Neuve par le Centre Charles de Visscher, 5 décembre 1986, pp. 27–80. For the subsequent development of ideas, see Peter Haggenmacher, “Mutations du concept de guerre juste de Grotius à Kant», in La guerre, Actes du Colloque of May 1986 (Coëtquidan-Saint-Cyr), Centre de Publications de l'Université de Caen, 1986, pp. 105–125 (Cahiers de Philosophic politique et juridique, no 10).