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Fernando Vázquez de Menchaca (1512–1569) was a Spanish jurist.

Fernando Vázquez de Menchaca was probably born in 1512 in Valladolid. [1] His family members included judges and administrators. He studied law at the universities of Vallodolid and Salamanca, graduating from the latter about 1548. [2] [1] Menchaca held various positions as a judge and bureaucrat, including at the court of Philip II of Spain. [3] Menchaca was a member of the Council of the Indies and the Order of Santiago. He died in 1569 in Seville. [4] He was a hidalgo. [2]

In his treatise Controversiarum illustrium aliarumque usu frequentium libri tres (Three books of famous and other controversies frequently occurring in practice), [1] likely first published in Venice in 1564, [1] Menchaca argued that political authority derives from the consent of the governed. Because people form societies by "natural inclination", according to Menchaca, political authority is an aspect of natural law. [5] Menchaca held that persons have natural rights including liberty and equality and endorsed a version of the social contract theory. [6] In this respect, Menchaca thought that domestic society and international society were on a par: both were based on "pacts and treaties". [7] Further, since people create society "for their own utility", Menchaca argued that the people had an inalienable power to control their rulers. [8]

Mencha is considered a member of the School of Salamanca. [1] He published six treatises between 1559 and 1564. [9] His thought influenced Hugo Grotius and Samuel von Pufendorf. [5] [10] Scholar Salvador Rus Rufino identifies Menchaca as part of the tradition of Catholic humanism. [11]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e van Nifterik, Gustaaf (2 December 2016). "Controversiarum illustrium aliarumque usu frequentium libri tres". The Formation and Transmission of Western Legal Culture. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-45567-9_3. ISBN  978-3-319-45564-8.
  2. ^ a b Rufino 2018, p. 158.
  3. ^ Rufino 2018, pp. 158–159.
  4. ^ Rufino 2018, p. 157.
  5. ^ a b Quijada, Mónica (August 2008). "From Spain to New Spain: Revisiting the Potestas Populi in Hispanic Political Thought". Mexican Studies. 24 (2): 198–200. doi: 10.1525/msem.2008.24.2.185. hdl: 10261/10553. ISSN  0742-9797.
  6. ^ Rufino 2018, pp. 165–166.
  7. ^ Sanahuja, Lorena Cebolla (8 September 2017). "The Rise and Fall of Cosmopolitan Law". Toward Kantian Cosmopolitanism. Springer. pp. 83–126. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-63988-8_3. ISBN  978-3-319-63987-1.
  8. ^ Koskenniemi, Martti (31 August 2021). "The Political Theology of Ius gentium". To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth: Legal Imagination and International Power 1300–1870. Cambridge University Press. pp. 117–211. doi: 10.1017/9781139019774.004. ISBN  978-1-139-01977-4. S2CID  241999226.
  9. ^ Rufino 2018, pp. 159–160.
  10. ^ Rufino 2018, p. 160.
  11. ^ Rufino 2018, pp. 161, 163.

Sources

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