Contents
Part A: The 16th Century
Chapter 1 Conscience and Law in the Renaissance
Chapter 2 The Ottoman Turks and the Spanish Neo-Scholastics
Chapter 3 The Reformation and Responses
Part B: The 17th Century
Chapter 4 Royalist and Populist Legal Thought
Chapter 5 The English Constitution and Social Contract Theory
Chapter 6 Dutch and Germanic Natural Rights Theory
Part C: The 18th Century
Introduction to Part C 105
Chapter 7 The French Social Contract and Cosmopolitan Theory
Chapter 8 Constitutional Theory and the US
Chapter 9 French and American Revolutions
Part D: The 19th Century
Chapter 10 Sovereignty, Liberalism, and the Law
Chapter 11 Marx and Socialist Legal and Political Thought
Chapter 12 Indigenous Constitutions and Legal Thought
Part E: The Early 20th Century up to Nuremberg
Chapter 13 Communist Legal Thought
Chapter 14 Radical and Emancipatory Thought
Chapter 15 Fascist and Racist Thought
Chapter 16 Legal Realism
Chapter 17 The Nuremberg Trial
Chapter 18 The United Nations and the Rise of International Law
Final Thoughts
This book covers modern legal and political thought from roughly 1450 to 1950, from the beginning of the Renaissance, with a unique turn to secularism, until the end of World War II with the Nuremberg Trial and the founding of the United Nations. It argues that there is not a sharp break between the end of the Medieval period and the Renaissance, at least in terms of humaneness. In addition to the canonical works of political philosophy, it also looks at certain non-Western societies, including the Ottoman Empire, India, Japan, Yoruba, and the Cherokee Nation, noting various forms of liberalism and conservativism, socialism and communism, fascism and anti-colonialism, all having distinct influences on how law and justice are understood. This work will appeal to all students and educated adults who are interested in how politics and law are intertwined in the Modern Age.
