Anne-Charlotte Martineau, ‘The Private as a Core Part of International Law: The School of Salamanca, Slavery, and Marriage (Sixteenth Century)’, 118 American Journal of International Law Unbound (2024). The colonial origins of public international law are increasingly front and center of scholarly and political discussions in the field. In her insightful essay, Anne-Charlotte Martineau suggests that the supposed ‘private’ nature of private international law also derives, in part, from extractive European colonialism. More often known as conflict of laws in the common law world, private international law governs the resolution of transnational disputes, focusing on issues such as jurisdiction, choice of law, and enforcement of judgments. Martineau recounts that from the middle of the sixteenth century, scholars of the so-called School of Salamanca – the intellectual movement led by Francisco de Vitoria that developed at the university of Salamanca in Spain – were mobilized to legitimize and facilitate enslavement and other violent practices by reconceptualizing the law of marriage … (more)
[Mathilde Cohen, JOTWELL, 27 March 2024]
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