Vitoria and Schmitt: Revisiting Political Theology and the Concept of Grossraum in the Twenty-First Century

José María Beneyto

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Chapter 2 Vitoria and Schmitt: Revisiting Political Theology and the Concept of Grossraum in the Twenty-First Century

In: Carl Schmitt and Francisco de Vitoria

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José María Beneyto

José María Beneyto
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 19–42

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004757448_003

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Abstract

Francisco de Vitoria occupies an influential place in the development of Carl Schmitt’s theories of international law. Despite Schmitt’s nostalgia for what might remain of Vitoria in the medieval world, Vitoria is primarily interpreted as a protagonist in the process of modernity towards the recognition of subjective rights, universalism, and limitation of the use of force. In particular, Schmitt polemicises in both The Nomos of the Earth and the more intimate Glossarium against what he sees as an ‘appropriation’ of Vitoria by James Brown Scott in the 1920s in order to give American liberal internationalism a natural law foundation. For Schmitt, the neutralisation of statehood through universalist international law and the prohibition of war would have the opposite effect of favouring American imperialism and, far from eliminating wars, criminalising the enemy as an ‘aggressor’. At the basis of Schmitt’s criticism of Vitoria lies what the German jurist saw as the consequences of modernity and its inevitable internal process towards complete secularisation and total politicisation.

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Carl Schmitt and Francisco de Vitoria

The Paradox of Universalism in International Law

Series: Legal History Library, Volume: 84/31 and Studies in the History of International Law, Volume: 84/31

Cover Carl Schmitt and Francisco de Vitoria

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004757448

Publisher:: Brill | Nijhoff

Print Publication Date:: 12 Mar 2026

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- History
- International Relations
  - International Relations

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Chapter 2 Vitoria and Schmitt: Revisiting Political Theology and the Concept of Grossraum in the Twenty-First Century

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Carl Schmitt and Francisco de Vitoria

The Paradox of Universalism in International Law

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