Popular Sovereignty in Early Modern Constitutional Thought

Author: Daniel Lee
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198824237

Published In: August 2018
Format: Paperback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Hardback Edition ISBN: 9780198745167

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Description
Contents

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Popular sovereignty - the doctrine that the public powers of state originate in a concessive grant of power from 'the people' - is perhaps the cardinal doctrine of modern constitutional theory, placing full constitutional authority in the people at large, rather than in the hands of judges, kings, or a political elite. Although its classic formulation is to be found in the major theoretical treatments of the modern state, such as in the treatises of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, this book explores the intellectual origins of this doctrine and investigates its chief source in late medieval and early modern thought.

Long regarded the principal source for modern legal reasoning, Roman law had a profound impact on the major architects of popular sovereignty such as Francois Hotman, Jean Bodin, and Hugo Grotius. Adopting the juridical language of obligations, property, and personality as well as the model of the Roman constitution, these jurists crafted a uniform theory that located the right of sovereignty in the people at large as the legal owners of state authority. In recovering the origins of popular sovereignty, the book demonstrates the importance of the Roman law as a chief source of modern constitutional thought.

Introduction: Popular Sovereignty, Constitutionalism, and the Civil Law

PART I
1. The Lex Regia: The Theory of Popular Sovereignty in the Roman Law Tradition
2. The Medieval Law of Peoples

PART II
3. Roman Law and the Renaissance State: Dominium, Jurisdiction, and the Humanist Theory of Princely Authority
4. Popular Resistance and Popular Sovereignty: Roman Law and the Monarchomach Doctrine of Popular Sovereignty

PART III
5. The Roman Law Foundations of Bodin's Early Doctrine of Sovereignty
6. Jean Bodin, Popular Sovereignty, and Constitutional Government

PART IV
7. Popular Sovereignty, Civil Association, and the Respublica: Johannes Althusius and the German Publicists
8. Popular Liberty, Princely Government, and the Roman Law in Hugo Grotius' De Jure Belli ac Pacis
9. Popular Sovereignty and the Civil Law in English Constitutional Thought

Conclusion