Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws

by Charles de Montesquieu , Edited by Anne M. Cohler , Basia Carolyn Miller , Harold Samuel Stone

• ISBN13: 9780521369749
• ISBN10: 0521369746
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1989-09-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The Spirit of the Laws is, without question, one of the central texts in the history of eighteenth-century thought, yet there has been no complete, scholarly English-language edition since that of Thomas Nugent, published in 1750. This lucid translation renders Montesquieu's problematic text newly accessible to a fresh generation of students, helping them to understand quite why Montesquieu was such an important figure in the early enlightenment and why The Spirit of the Laws was, for example, such an influence upon those who framed the American constitution. Fully annotated, this edition should focus attention upon Montesquieu's use of sources and his text as a whole, rather than upon those opening passages towards which critical energies have traditionally been devoted, and a select bibliography and chronology are provided for those coming to Montesquieu's work for the first time.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
Principal events in Montesquieu's life	xxix
Bibliographical note	xxxi
Translators' preface	xxxiv
List of abbreviations	xxxix
Author's foreword	xli
Preface	xliii
Figure I	xlvi
Part 1
On laws in general	3	(7)
On laws deriving directly from the nature of the government	10	(11)
On the principles of the three governments	21	(10)
That the laws of education should be relative to the principles of the government	31	(11)
That the laws given by the legislator should be relative to the principle of the government	42	(30)
Consequences of the principles of the various governments in relation to the simplicity of civil and criminal laws, the form of judgments, and the establishment of penalties	72	(24)
Consequences of the different principles of the three governments in relation to sumptuary laws, luxury, and the condition of women	96	(16)
On the corruption of the principles of the three governments	112	(19)
Part 2
On the laws in their relation with defensive force	131	(7)
On laws in their relation with offensive force	138	(16)
On the laws that form political liberty in its relation with the constitution	154	(33)
On the laws that form political liberty in relation to the citizen	187	(26)
On the relations that the levy of taxes and the size of public revenues have with liberty	213	(18)
Part 3
On the laws in their relation to the nature of the climate	231	(15)
How the laws of civil slavery are related with the nature of the climate	246	(18)
How the laws of domestic slavery are related to the nature of the climate	264	(14)
How the laws of political servitude are related to the nature of the climate	278	(7)
On the laws in their relation with the nature of the terrain	285	(23)
On the laws in their relation with the principles forming the general spirit, the mores, and the manners of a nation	308	(29)
Part 4
On the laws in their relation to commerce, considered in its nature and its distinctions	337	(17)
On laws in their relation to commerce, considered in the revolutions it has had in the world	354	(44)
On laws in their relation to the use of money	398	(29)
On laws in their relation to the number of inhabitants	427	(32)
Part 5
On the laws in their relation to the religion established in each country, examined in respect to its practices and within itself	459	(20)
On the laws in their relation with the establishment of the religion of each country, and of its external police	479	(15)
On the laws in the relation they should have with the order of things upon which they are to enact	494	(27)
Part 6
Only Chapter. On the origin and revolutions of the Roman laws on inheritance	521	(11)
On the origin and revolutions of the civil laws among the French	532	(70)
On the way to compose the laws	602	(17)
The theory of the feudal laws among the Franks in their relation with the establishment of the monarchy	619	(50)
The theory of the feudal laws among the Franks in their relation to the revolutions of their monarchy	669	(54)
Bibliography	723	(12)
Index of names and places	735	(12)
Index of works cited	747