The Cradle of International Law: Camilo Barcia Trelles on Francisco de Vitoria at The Hague (1927)

Abstract

In 1926, James Brown Scott invited the Spanish international lawyer Camilo Barcia Trelles to lecture at the 1927 Hague Academy of International Law on the contribution of the Spanish internationalists of the 16th century to the development of international law. With his lecture series on Francisco de Vitoria, Barcia Trelles fulfilled the hopes Scott had of enlisting an ally in his crusade to the Spanish origins of international law. Through their respective writings, the two international lawyers from both sides of the Atlantic co-produced the myth which situates the oldest roots of the ‘science of international law’ with Vitoria and the School of Salamanca and which has to this day largely obscured the contribution of late-medieval jurisprudence. This article analyses the methodological and intellectual moves Barcia Trelles made to construe Vitoria as the original founder of international law and detach him from his medieval sources.