Gabriella Silvestrini

Rousseau, Pufendorf and the eighteenth-century natural law tradition

The relationship between the political theory of Rousseau and modern natural law continues to be the subject of debate, both with regard to Rousseaus faithfulness to the idea of natural law itself and regarding the precise extent of the debt he owed to his predecessors. In this article the author re-examines this relationship by focusing attention on what has been defined as the protestant tradition of natural law. In particular she concentrates on the political and theoretical exercise that Jean Barbeyrac had sought to perform by constructing a particular version of this tradition, namely that of using the science of natural law to promote a policy of tolerance between protestants and to justify the right of citizens to resist catholic sovereigns who denied them religious freedom, as well as the right of protestant countries to come to the aid of persecuted fellow believers. The thesis asserts that Rousseau was fully aware of this exercise, just as he was aware that some of Barbeyracs ideas had been adopted and reworked by another illustrious Genevan, Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, a member of the Small Council, to support anti-populist and antidemocratic politics in Geneva. Viewed in this way it is possible to perceive in Rousseaus political thought not so much a “first crisis” of natural law as an intention to reformulate this science from a republican perspective in order to derive rigorous principles of political law from it. And in developing his republican political theory Rousseau took up and overturned the analysis of democratic sovereignty carried out by Pufendorf, who in opposing the “pro-monarchist” excesses of authors such as Hobbes and Horn had unhesitatingly demonstrated the complete validity of democratic sovereignty. ☆ I would like to thank Matthew Armistead for his excellent English translation. The article is a revised version of ‘Rousseau, Pufendorf e la tradizione giusnaturalistica settecentesca’, in M. Ferronato (ed.), Dal “De Jure naturae et gentium” di Samuel Pufendorf alla codificazione prussiana del 1794, Padova, Cedam, 2005, pp. 115–185.

Fra diritto di guerra e potere di punire: il diritto di vita e di morte nel contratto sociale

The essay analyses Rousseau’s Du contrat social, Book II, Chap. V (Du droit de vie et de mort), which many scholars consider ambiguous and inconsistent. The Author claims that it is possible to overcome this inconsistency if the chapter is set within the discussion between modern philosophers of natural law on right of war and right to punish. Rousseau relies more on Pufendorf than on Grotius, Hobbes or Locke, but he doesn’t accept all his doctrines. Thus, he holds that if the right of life and death has its origin in the social contract and murder and the death penalty are naturally connected, the right of the sovereign to kill derives from the right of war. Like Pufendorf and differently from other natural law philosophers, Rousseau maintains that war is a consequence, not an effect, of politics. The death penalty, therefore, if connected with the sovereign’s right of war, loses its role when the State no longer risks being destroyed.

Vattel, Rousseau et la question de la ‘justice’ de la guerre

The Law of Vattel is a book that easily lends itself to contradictory readings because it carries many dualisms that appear in the quartered antagonistic directions. Vattel continues to move on different planes during his peoples law. In this short study, it will simply indicate the sequence of different dualisms which were subsequently considered consistent with his little project overall or with a modern conception of international law. The law of Vattel is the right of States, not only in terms of a law between states, but of all their rights and duties, as these are for internal use within the State, or for external use, in relations with other states. The law of nations is a work of modern rationalist period goal, as all the works of this period; he conveys with it the medieval heritage, Christian and scholastic. The original text of the chapter is in French. Keywords: dualism; international law; law of nations; Vattel