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Historisk tidskrift 128:3 • 2008

Innehåll (Contents) 2008:3

Uppsatser (Articles)

Kolonialism och rättfärdigt krig – Francisco de Vitoria. De rättfärdiga krigens återkomst

Edda Manga

Fulltext (pdf)

Summary

Colonialism and just war: Francisco de Vitoria

This article analyses present uses of the concept of ”just war” by means of an in- vestigation of two famous lectures by the principal natural law theorist of the sixteenth century, Francisco de Vitoria. Vitoria proposed just war as the legal basis for Spanish sovereignty over the native population of the Americas. His ar- gument is regarded as fundamental to the development of international law and human rights. It was also successfully used to legitimate colonial expansion.

The first part of the article consists of a close reading of Vitoria’s texts. It analyses Vitoria’s teachings from a tripartite classification encompassing 1) uni- versal man, 2) the respectable other and 3) the absolute enemy, analogous to the Latin distinction between noster, alter and alius.

The concluding part links Vitoria’s teachings on just war with present uses of the concept. Michael Hardt’s and Antonio Negris’s interpretation of the return of just wars in the Empire is analysed. John Rawls’s division of mankind into liberal peoples, decent peoples and rogue states is compared to Vitoria’s tripartite divi- sion. Bethke Elshtain’s concept of just war against terror and evil is interpreted against the background of Vitoria’s theory of evil enemies.

Rather than demonstrating continuity and change in the history of the concept of just war, the article provides historical resonance and analogous analysis of comprehensive patterns. It argues that just war has provided and still provides a legal basis for global power relations constructed on the differentiation of the global population.

Keywords

just war, Francisco de Vitoria, natural law, Indians, sixteenth century, Spain, the New World, globalisation, colonialism, post-colonial theory, internatio- nal law (history), bio-politics