Work · Empiricism, Enlightenment & Liberalism
The Spirit of the Laws
Climate, customs, constitutions – and the separation of powers.
Introduction
Montesquieu published the work anonymously in Geneva in 1748, after about twenty years of work; its 31 books are arranged in six parts. It treats laws in relation to the form of government, to the defence of the state, to liberty, climate and soil, to customs, trade, money and population, and to religion; the last books trace the history of Roman and feudal law. Book XI, chapter 6, describes the English constitution and the separation of legislative, executive and judicial power. The Church placed the book on the Index in 1751. The authors of the Federalist Papers referred to “the celebrated Montesquieu”.
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Connections
Builds on
- Two Treatises of Government1689 · John Locke
Taken up in
- The Social Contract1762 · Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- On Crimes and Punishments1764 · Cesare Beccaria
- An Essay on the History of Civil Society1767 · Adam Ferguson
- The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks1771 · John Millar
- Reflections on the Revolution in France1790 · Edmund Burke
- Democracy in America1835 · Alexis de Tocqueville
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