Luís de Molina and the problem of the legitimacy of slavery in lusitanic domains: 16th century

Abstract

The purpose of this research project is to map the different legitimate titles of slavery, as well as the moral imposition of responsibility to the Portuguese State in maintaining and overseeing the legitimacy of the slave trade in the 16th century. For this purpose, the main documental corpus will be the work of Luís de Molina - Tractatus de iustitia et de iure - originally published in Latin in 1593. In a world marked by the inseparability between the affairs of government and the debates of a religious nature, we believe it is relevant to investigate further the efforts made by Molina not only to identify the titles by which captivity should be considered legitimate but also by what the jurist claims to be the secular arm's own responsibilities in matters of state, including among them the slave trade. By placing this work in dialogue with some of its counterparts, we will seek, from the perspective expressed by Molina in the treaty concerned, to map some of the most important attributions of the state in maintaining the legitimacy of slavery and the situations and measures to be taken when moral illegitimacy was identified. Although it is an introductory study, centered on the moral and legal debate about the intersection of the State and Slavery themes, and considering the specificities of the period of union of the Iberian crowns (1580-1640), the research focuses on the Kingdom of Portugal and the different tangent localities with which this kingdom maintained relations of slave trade, mainly in different regions of Africa and Asia, during the 16th century. (AU)