The Spirit of the Laws

The book The Spirit of Laws by Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu 1748, first published in the early days of the Enlightenment, under the original French title De L' esprit des Loix in Geneva. The first publication was anonymous because Montesquieu's works were subject to censorship, and in fact the book was put on the Index in 1751.

The Spirit of the Laws is Montesquieu's major work dar. The French subtitle of the original edition " Ou du rapport que les Loix doivent avoir avec la constitution de chaque gouvernement, les moeurs, le climat, la religion, le commerce & c. , À quoi l' Auteur a ajouté of nouvelles recherches sur les Loix Romaines touchant les Successions, sur les Loix et sur ​​les Loix Françoises Féodales "(Eng.: Or for the purchase, the laws for the construction of any government, to the customs, climate, religion, the trade, etc., must have, what the author has added new research on the Roman succession laws, the French laws and the feudal laws ) already shows the scope of the topics to areas.

The basis for the book his study of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Unlike the Christian philosophy of history, which looked at the fall of Rome as the work of divine providence, Montesquieu wanted to find a factual statement. He has formed and attempted to define the determinants, according to which individual states have developed their respective government and legal system in the spirit of the law to a political and social theory These insights. From these factors, the " general spirit " ( "esprit général " ) of a nation and this results in turn corresponds to the spirit of their laws. Their population is according to Montesquieu thus not a practically unlimited amount of laws, but rather an expression of the natural environment, history, and the " character " of a people.

It is a key text of the Enlightenment.

First part, government studies

The first part of this work represents a government teaching dar. Here Montesquieu proposes a new classification of the forms of government, which differs significantly from the previously commonly held Aristotelian. He distinguishes: republic, monarchy, and despotism.

" Republican is that government in which the people has as a body or only a part of the people of the sovereign power. Monarchy is the one government in which a single man ruled, however, according to fixed laws and proclaimed, whereas in the despotic government a single man abrichtet according to his will and obstinacy without rule and law of all. "

The main distinguishing feature is the number of those in power, but whether is governed by laws, as in the Republic and Empire, or without law, as in despotism. In addition, the forms of government differ, as in Aristotle, by the number of rulers. The Republic is democracy or aristocracy, depending on whether "the people as a body, the sovereign power has " ( Ibid. chap. 2), or only a part of the people, especially the aristocrats. If only one there is the government monarchy or despotism, depending on whether it is governed by laws or not.

With his description of the monarchy as a form of government bound to laws Montesquieu regarded as one of the originators of the idea of a constitutional monarchy.

Montesquieu distinguishes the nature of the different forms of government of its principle.

" The differences between the nature of the government and its principle: Their nature makes it what it is, its principle it takes to act. One is the special structure, the other is the human passions, which they set in motion. "

Principle of democracy is the virtue of self-discipline, the aristocracy, the monarchy, the honor and the despotism of terror.

Second part, separation of powers

In the second part of the work of the Enlightenment puts his separation of powers doctrine dar. He raises the question whether it is possible to create a society in which the citizen is free and affirms the question:

" A country can be constructed so that no one is forced to do something which he is not bound by the law, and no one is forced to refrain from something that the law allows. "

The freedom as a civil right is given if the state is forced limited exclusively to the laws. If the State has only the socially -essential constraint, the maximum possible civil liberty is given. The first condition for civil liberty, then, is that rulers are bound by laws. The second condition, however, is the government agenda to take power over the laws. "It is to be feared, namely, that the same monarch or senate erließe same tyrannical laws and tyrannical carried out " ( Ibid. chap. 6), so that the arbitrary acts of the rulers are indeed dressed in laws, but still are arbitrary acts. Therefore, according to Montesquieu, must be separated from the executive power of the legislative. The laws restrict the civil liberty -endangering compulsion exerted by the rulers to citizens, only one of the absolutely necessary if they are deprived of their arbitrariness. His separation of powers doctrine, he designs the example of the English constitution. But his explanations hardly describe the then British relations, but they represent an ideal image on the basis of English conditions designed.

Part Three, causes of laws

In the third part, finally, Montesquieu points to the "natural" causes of the laws in climatic conditions and the "esprit général ," general spirit of the people.

German -language edition

• Kurt Weigand (Translator, Introduction); Loeb Classical Library, 8953rd Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 2011 ISBN 3150089530

Literature (technical )

• Paul- Louis Christmas Ed.: Montesquieu: 250 years of " Spirit of Laws ". Contributions from political science, law, and Romance. Nomos, Baden -Baden 1999 ISBN 3789060917
• Panagiōtēs Kondylēs: Montesquieu and the Spirit of the Laws. Academy, Berlin 1996 ISBN 3050029838

Novel

Georg M. Oswald: The Spirit of Laws. Novel. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2007 ISBN 3498050370