3.4 The Nation in the Polish May-Constitution 1788
3.5.2 Late Scholastic Concepts of the Transfer of Sovereignty ( translatio imperii ) or the Nation as Moral Entity
3.5.2 Late Scholastic Concepts of the Transfer of Sovereignty
existence of the human community itself.
226In the School of Salamanca , which
‘passed’ natural law from theologians to jurists , monarchical sovereignty is not of divine but of human origin. The justifi cation for this secularization
227relies on the legal argument of the transition of sovereignty ( translatio imperii ); monarchical sovereignty comes from God by means of the community of the human beings, whose social nature includes their natural legislative power.
228With reference to Domingo de Soto and his statement that ‘the sovereign power derives from God to the king s by means of the people, where it is said to reside primarily and essentially’,
229a protest against the aforementioned Art. 3 was formulated in the Cortes.
It was the old dualism between monarch and estates that survived as a secular- ized model of the biblical covenant between God and his people. Irrespective of any French infl uences onto Cádiz-constitutionalism,
230the prevailing discourse patterns with regard to national sovereignty rely on the mutual power of people and King.
231The Spanish Nation as the people and the Monarch is refl ected by Antonio Llaneras , who is not against the draft of national sovereignty in Art. 3, because ‘the Spanish nation […] has a head, that is Ferdinand VII, whom [the cortes] had sworn solemnly as sovereign on the fi rst day of their installation.’
232Similar is the statement of José Ramón Becerra y Llamas : ‘The Spanish people, who has deputed us to represent it in this general and extraordinary Cortes, and our beloved sovereign Ferdinand VII, who is its head, form a moral body, which I call the nation or the Spanish
226 The Bishop of Clahorra even expressly referred to Thomas von Aquin: “ dicen […] Santo Tomás […] que en una comunidad perfecta era necesario un poder á quien perteneciese el Gobierno de ellla misma, porque el pueblo, segun la sentencia del Sábio […] quedaria destruido faltando quien gobernase. ” (quoted from: D.D.A.C., ibid. Fn. 193, vol. 8, p. 59).
227 In relation to the change of religious covenant-concept see Oestreich, Gerhard , Die Idee des religiösen Bundes und die Lehre vom Staatsvertrag, in: Hoffmann 1967, p. 128; Timmermann , ibid. (n. 181), p. 140; the preamble implies this specifi c covenant in the meaning of an ability of Cortes to transfer government in accordance to divine will on the king : ‘by the grace of God and the constitution of the Spanish monarchy’ (quoted from: Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy, ibid. (n. 202), p. 4).
228 Cf. Reibstein, Ernst , Johannes Althusius als Fortsetzer der Schule von Salamanca:
Untersuchungen zur Ideengeschichte des Rechtsstaates und zur altprotestantischen Naturrechtslehre, Karlsruhe 1955, p. 94; Castellote, Salvador , Der Beitrag zur Spanischen Spätscholastik zur Geschichte Europas, in: Kremer, Markus/Reuter, Hans-Richard (ed.), Macht und Moral – politisches Denken im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, p. 26 f. (Francisco de Vitoria).
229 “ la potestad soberana es derivada de Dios a los reyes mediante el pueblo, en quien se dice residir primaria y esencialmente; ” (Quoted from: D.D.A.C., ibid. Fn. 193, vol. 8, p. 58).
230 So Agesta , ibid. (n. 198), p. 59; Timmermann , Die Nationale Souveränität in der Verfassung von Cádiz (1812), Der Staat 39 (2000), p. 570–587, 572; Masferrer , ibid. (n. 184), p. 646. Torres del Moral , La soberanía nacional en la constitución de Cádiz, Revista de Derecho Político, 82 (2011), p. 55–117, 66.
231 Varela Suanzes-Carpegna , La teoría del estado, ibid. (n. 203); p. 179.
232 “ la Nación española […] tiene cabeza que es Fernando VII, a quién V.M. en el primer día de su instalación juró solemnemente por soberano […] ” (Quoted from: D.D.A.C., ibid. Fn. 193, p. 21).
monarchy’.
233The cuerpo moral of Llamas is distinct from the Rousseauian corps moral that receives its moi commun through the social contract .
234Llamas’ cuerpo moral is derived from the late scholastical notion of the cuerpum mysticum (cuerpo místico),
235which can be traced back to the works of Francisco Suárez .
236The Monarch is the head of the cuerpo moral , which consists of himself and the people,
237and in Art. 3 it is the King as head of the nation who participates in the national sovereignty together with the Cortes.
238Any idea of one homogeneous will embod- ied in the nation is to fail because it is not the egalitarian abstract idea of the human society born out of natural state, politically unifi ed as nation, but the real conditions of the former global power
239that are predominant in the cortes‘ debates . The meta- phorical equivalence between the human organism and the political community in late scholasticism
240leads to the understanding of the nation as an organic unity.
241People ( pueblo) describe the population in different territories or kingdoms of both hemispheres rather than an homogenous political entity. According to the scholastic doctrine of the seventeenth century, the Spanish nation consisted of the Castilian and Indian communities ( comunidades), people (pueblos), republics (repúblicas ) and the Monarch.
242This matches the particular preconditions of nineteenth century hispanic-american constitutionalism.
243It could not be ignored that the Spanish nation was a conglomerate of different people ( pueblos que forman una sola nación)
233 “ El pueblo español, que nos ha diputado para presentarlo en estas cortes generales y extraor- dinarias, y nuestro amado soberano el señor don Fernando VII, que es su cabeza, forman un cuerpo moral, al que yo llamo la nación o monarquía española, […] ” (Quoted from: D.D.A.C., ibid. Fn. 193, p. 15).
234 “ A l’instant, au lieu de la personne particuliere de chaque contractant, cet acte d’association produit un corps moral et collectif […], lequel reçoit de ce même acte son unité, son moi commun, sa vie et sa volonté. ” ( Rousseau, Jean-Jacques , Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique , liv. I, chap. VI (Du pacte social), ed. Derathe, Robert (Pleïade), Paris 1964, p. 361).
235 Details about the Cuerpo Místico : Maravall , ibid. (n. 216), p. 190 ff.
236 “ Primo solum ut est aggregatum quoddam sine ullo ordine vel unione physica vel morali; […]
Alio modo ergo consideranda est hominum multitudo, quatenus speciali voluntate seu communi consensu in unum corpus politicum congregantur uno societatis vinculo et ut mutuo se iuvent in ordine ad unum fi nem politicum, quomodo effi ciunt unum corpus mysticum, quod moraliter dici potest per se unum […] ” (quoted from: Suárez, Francisco , Tractatus de legibus ac deo legislatore (1612), Vol. IV, Madrid (Inst. de Estudios Politícos) 1973, p. 153).
237 With Suárez the hominum multidudo needs a head to be a moral cuerpo mysticum: “ illudque consequenter indiget uno capite. ” (quoted from: Suárez , ibid. (n. 236), p. 153).
238 Varela Suanzes-Carpegna , La teoría del estado, ibid. (n. 203), p. 212.
239 Varela Suanzes-Carpegna , La teoría del estado, ibid. (n. 203), p. 182.
240 Maravall identifi es the infl uence of humanism as condition for the perception of a political com- munity ( Maravall , ibid. (n. 216), p. 58).
241 Varela Suanzes-Carpegna , La teoría del estado, ibid. (n. 203), p. 211.
242 Maravall, José Antonio , Teoría española del Estado en el siglo XVII, Madrid, 1944.
243 Cf. inter alia Álvarez Cuartero, Izaskun/Sánchez Gómez, Julio (ed.), Visiones y revisiones de la independencia americana, Salamanca, 2007; Annino, Antonio/Ternavasio, Marcela , El laboratorio constitucional iberoamericano, Madrid et al., 2012; Chust, Manuel/Serrano, José Manuel , Debates sobre las independencias iberoamericanas, Madrid et al., 2007.