The Catholic Conception of International Law

Originally published: Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1934. xxix (v-xxix new introduction), XV, [2], 494 pp. This important study of international law theory before Grotius discusses the work of Victoria and Suarez, together with the writings of later Catholic jurists of the period, such as Mariana, Buchanan and Bellarmine. Contemporary Protestant jurists are discussed as well. Reprint of the sole edition.

"The outstanding merit of the book for which Dr. Scott has placed scholars and lawyers in his debt is that it is a needed reminder that the ideas and conceptions on which the internal order of states, no less than the good order of the international community, depend, are not of today nor of yesterday, but that they have a long history, and that their deepest roots are in the great tradition of Christian thought, which, through the centuries, was elaborated by schoolmen and canonists and jurists with a power of analysis and insight which puts to shame the contributions of much of what passes for contemporary jurisprudence."--John Dickinson, Georgetown Law Journal 24 (1935-1936) 218

JAMES BROWN SCOTT [1866-1943], a participant in the Versailles Conference, was an outstanding scholar of international law and author of many influential works on the subject. With Dr. Alejandro Alvarez, a distinguished Chilean international lawyer, he established the American Institute of International Law in 1912.