In 1679 appears in London an edition of De legibus de Suarez, just the same year when Locke begins to write his second Essay about Civil Government. The conception which both authors have about the origins of society from the agreement between all its members, with the purpose of shaping a political body, which endows itself with a ruler with «legislative power>> for directing society towards the common good, as well as the terminology which both employ, show a remarkable similarity (...) which deserves a detailed study. (shrink)

Suárez undertakes systematic study of natural moral law in Book II of De legibus, which is integrally consecrated to the study of the eternal law, natural right and the right of nations. In confrontation, among others, with the thesis of Gabriel Vázquez, Suárez maintains the natural moral law is a divine obligatory law or command, which orders to do or to avoid that which is «fitting» or «unfitting» with the human rational nature. Divine Mind and Will contribute thus, each within (...) the bounds of his own sphere, towards the promulgation of the natural moral law. (shrink)