Montesquieu
historical figure · 8 works · 14 mentions · 17 anchored passages
that great man · the great Montesquieu · the immortal Montesquieu · your illustrious Montesquieu
in the texts
Ancient Law
Political philosopher assumed as background knowledge for readers of Ancient Law.
Maine did not write, for example, for readers who had never heard of Hobbes or Montesquieu.
Their juridical tact, their ease of expression, their fine sense of analogy and harmony, and (if they may be judged by the highest names among them) their passionate devotion to their conceptions of justice, were as remarkable as the singular variety of talent which they included, a variety covering the whole ground between the opposite poles of Cujas and Montesquieu, of D’Aguesseau and Dumoulin.
Bearing in some exaggerations the marks of the excessive violence with which its author’s mind had recoiled from assumptions usually suffered to pass without scrutiny, yet showing in some ambiguities the traces of a desire to compromise with existing prejudice, the book of Montesquieu, with all its defects, still proceeded on that Historical Method before which the Law of Nature has never maintain …
An Essay on Crimes and Punishments
French Enlightenment jurist and political philosopher, author invoked as Beccaria's acknowledged predecessor on the subject of punishment.
The immortal Montesquieu has but slightly touched on this subject.
Every punishment which does not arise from absolute necessity, says the great Montesquieu, is tyrannical.
Public accusations, says Montesquieu, are more conformable to the nature of a republic, where zeal for the public good is the principal passion of a citizen, than of a monarchy, in which, as this sentiment is very feeble, from the nature of the government, the best establishment is that of commissioners, who, in the name of the public, accuse the infractors of the laws.
Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John
18th-century French political philosopher, cited as having admired the precedent-based rules for treatment of foreign traders.
There were thus precedents for those rules for foreign traders, which have aroused the admiration of Montesquieu.
See De l’Esprit des Lois, II. 12 (ed. of 1750, Edinburgh), “La grande chartre des Anglois défend de saisir et de confisquer en cas de guerre les marchandises des négociants étrangers, à moins que ce ne soit par représailles. Il est beau que la nation Angloise ait fait de cela un des articles de sa liberté!”
Dissertations on Early Law and Custom
Eighteenth-century writer credited with popularizing the discovery about the true scope of the Salic law.
Montesquieu in the eighteenth century popularised the discovery;
Lectures on the Early History of Institutions
French political theorist whose doctrine on political power is quoted by Austin.
And then Austin quotes from Montesquieu the doctrine that ‘Political power necessarily implies the union of several families.
The Rights of War and Peace
French writer, author of the Persian Letters referenced in the Library.
Montesquieu and Goldsmith are drawn on for their Persian and Chinese Letters.
A Protest Against Law-Taxes
French political philosopher cited for the view that costly, slow justice is the price of liberty.
The expense, the delay, and all the other grievances, which activity has heaped up, or negligence suffered to accumulate, are the prices which, according to Montesquieu, we must be content to pay for liberty and justice.
Construction Construed and Constitutions Vindicated
French Enlightenment political philosopher, cited for an anecdote about a 'savage of America' cutting down a fruit tree, used to illustrate the folly of destroying the division of powers.
Montesquieu has somewhere said, that when the savage of America wants fruit, he cuts down the tree to obtain it.