The Justification of slavery in modern natural law

Since the classical conceptions, slavery always had a strong juridical support that granted it legitimation and critical considerations. As such, we should pay attention to the systematizing efforts of many jurists attempting to explain and justify the institution’s existence and its functioning rules, connecting positive law with the principles of natural law and jus gentium. Through it, they strived at an ethical and legal validation of the theories and action of enslaving. We analyze the interconnection of the jus naturale theories with the legitimation of slavery throughout the modern age by studying the ideas of several Iberian theologians from the sixteenth century’s school of natural law and of philosophers and jurists from the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Without the pretension of covering such a vast and complex topic, we focus on the arguments legitimizing the justifications of slavery.