The Spirit of Laws
Notebook
Montesquieu's masterwork, published anonymously in 1748 and given here in Thomas Nugent's 1750 English translation, is a sweeping comparative study of law, government, and society across thirty-one books. Arguing that laws must suit the nature and principle of each government—republic, monarchy, or despotism—as well as the climate, geography, commerce, and manners of a people, it advanced the enduring doctrine of the separation of legislative, executive, and judicial powers. Immensely influential on the American founders and modern constitutionalism, it helped inaugurate both political science and the sociology of law.
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