Montesquieu and Modern Comparative Law, Climate, Geography, and the Structure of Political Communities
![handle is hein.journals/branlaj57 and id is 579 raw text is:
MONTESQUIEU AND MODERN COMPARATIVE LAW,
CLIMATE, GEOGRAPHY, AND THE STRUCTURE OF
POLITICAL COMMUNITIES
Daniel Bonilla Maldonado*
I. INTRODUCTION
Modem political theory revolves around a series of normative and
descriptive questions about the structure of a political community!
Questions like: What should the basic structure of a polity be?; What are the
arguments that this structure is based on?; Should the basic structure of a
political community account for the material and cultural context in which
its members are located? Or, rather: Should its design ignore these variables
and revolve around the political values that should guide any collectivity?;
What variables explain the characteristics that identify the different political
communities?; What should the methodology be to specify these
explanatory reasons? In this Article, I want to explore the answers that
Montesquieu offers to some of these questions. In particular, I want to
explore how the comparative method, geography, and climate intersect in
Montesquieu to explain the basic structures of political communities.
Therefore, in this Article I am not concentrating on the most common
political and legal arguments in the literature on Montesquieu, like the
principle of separation of powers, the central characteristics of the typology
of forms of government he offers, the relationship between natural law and
positive law, or his defense of a legally-limited monarchy.2 My analysis
revolves around the use of comparative studies to justify the causal
relationship that supposedly exists between climate and geography, on the
one hand, and biology, psychology, law, and politics, on the other. Of
* Associate Professor, Universidad de los Andes School of Law.
See generally ANNELIEN DE DUN, FRENCH POLITICAL THOUGHT FROM MONTESQUIEU TO
TOCQUEVILLE (2008).
2 See, e.g., THOMAS PANGLE, MONTESQUIEU'S PHILOSOPHY OF LIBERALISM: A COMMENTARY ON
THE SPIRIT OF THE LAWS (1973); see also PAUL RAHE, MONTESQUIEU AND THE LOGIC OF LIBERTY
(2009). The main book by Montesquieu is MONTESQUIEU, EL ESPiRITU DE LAS LEYES (Siro Garcia del
Mazo trans., Libreria de Victoriano Suarez 1906) (1748) [hereinafter EL ESPIRITU]. Three other relevant
books for this Article are MONTESQUIEU, CONSID RATIONS SUR LES CAUSES DE LA GRANDEUR DES
ROMAINS ET DE LEUR DECADENCE (Catherine Volphilhac-Auger ed., Folio 2008) (1734) [hereinafter
CONSIDtRATIONS]; MONTESQUIEU, CARTAS PERSAS (Francisco Javier Hernadex ed., Catedra 1997)
(1721) [hereinafter CARTAS PERSAS]; and MONTESQUIEU, ENSAYO SOBRE EL GUSTO (Ariel Dilon trans.,
Libros del Zorza 2006) (1757).
561](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/branlaj57&div=31&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Montesquieu and Modern Comparative Law, Climate, Geography, and the Structure of Political Communities
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most