Francisco Suárez (1548-1617) is today regarded as a very prominent figure in the intellectual landscape of the later sixteenth century and the beginnings of the seventeenth century. Thanks to the renewed attention to his work throughout the twentieth century, it has become increasingly clear that the magister Eximius holds an original, sometimes even revolutionary position in between many of the dualisms that seem to mark this complex era, between natural rights and the legislator for example, or between ethical objectivism and voluntarism.

Suárez work points in innovative ways towards future thought in fields as diverse as metaphysics and ontology, legal theory, constitutional thought, the law of nature and of nations and just war. In this framework, a number of contemporary debates crystallise around Suárez' legal and political thought and centre on key notions, such as obligation, or focus on the broader interconnectedness of De legibus and Disputationes metaphysicae. These debates furthermore display a variety of diverging or opposing ideas and interpretations that concern a vast panoply of themes. The role of contract, the concept of natural law, the relation between contingency, history and law, or the subjective meaning of 'ius' are just a few examples in this respect. At the same time, research uncovers new fields and sources with respect to Suárez' influence and intellectual impact, as for example the increasing interest in his legacy in protestant countries shows.

This conference aims to bring together contributions from different backgrounds in Suárez Studies that focus on the various aspects and subfields of Suárez' multifaceted legal and political thought. Within this framework, papers are invited on any subject of Suarez' political and legal thought, including his relation to contemporary scholars, his intellectual sources as well as his own later influence and reception.

Programma

Day 1, 24 November 2017

10h30 : Opening session

Welcome
Randall Lesaffer

Introduction
Dominique Bauer

Suárez on law, right, obligation and custom I

11h00 : Suárez, d'un droit avant le droit au devenir juridique de l'humanité
Jean-Paul Coujou

The Grotian face of Suárez (and in Locke)
Hans Blom

La relation entre morale et droit dans la théorie suarézienne du droit des gens
Demelemestre

13h00 : Lunch

Suárez on violence and war

14h00 : Intentionality and self-defence in Suárez
Daniel Schwartz

Francisco Suárez and just war theory in the New World
Camilla Boisen

Suárez between tyrannicide and terrorism
Inge Van Hulle

Die Friedensethik für die Synthese zwischen Naturrecht und Tugendlehre
Markus Kremer

16h00 : Break

Suárez and private law

16h30 : La contribution de Suárez à la formation du droit privé moderne
Luisa Brunori and Wim Decock

Free will and property in Suárez
Bart Wauters

17h30 : End

Day 2, 25 November 2017

Suárez on law, right, obligation and custom II

9h00: The equilibrium between 'intellectus' and 'voluntas', generator of the political community. The definition of law of Suárez
Cintia Faraco

Suárez – obligation, practical reason and power
Thomas Pink

On Suárez's concept of ius and the possibility of an early modern juridical systematic
Anna Fouto

Suárez as a legal adviser. Considerations about the problem of probabilism in law
João Manuel, Alexandrino Fernandes

11h00 : Break

Suárez on justice and government

11h30 : Francisco Suárez and British political and legal thought
Johann Sommerville

Scholastic republicanism. Suárez on power, freedom and original democracy
Benjamin Slingo

Francisco Suárez and Hugo Grotius on distribute justice
Johan Olsthoorn

13h00 : Lunch

Contact details : Jo Alaerts : jo.alaerts@law.kuleuven.be

Registration fee : participation 1 day : 50 euros (lunch included) participation 2 days : 100 euros (both lunches included) Registration no later than 15th of November.