Natural Law and Civil Sovereignty: Moral Right and State Authority in Early Modern Political Thought

In this text, research by leading international scholars is brought to bear on the role of early modern natural law doctrines in reconstructing the relations between moral right and civil authority in the face of profound religious and political conflict. In addition to providing fresh insights into the hard-fought struggle to legitimate a desacralised civil order, the book also shows the degree to which the legitimacy of the modern secular state remains dependent on this decisive set of developments.