Introduction
Book XII is part of The Spirit of Laws by Baron de La Brede et de Montesquieu. The document was prepared as part of a discourse on political liberty and its determinants of it. Book XII de Montesquieu discusses how political freedom is related to the subject who exercises it. The central notion discussed in this part of the treatise is security, associated with the political manifestations of the subjects in the overall structure of the state and the constitution.
Purpose of the Document
Book XII is entitled Of the Laws That Form Political Liberty, in Relation to the Subject. It consists of thirty components-ideas that de Montesquieu sets forth to demonstrate his vision of the regularities and laws of the operation of political liberties. The primary purpose of de Montesquieu is to address the perceptions of the subject’s (participants in the state) own security regarding political freedoms (Noble et al., 2013). In particular, he considers the idea that the constitution is not a guarantee of security and freedom, despite the statements it contains. de Montesquieu seeks to convey the idea that human rights and freedoms are not always credible because the instruments of the state cannot achieve complete perfection.
de Montesquieu tries to state that freedom as a phenomenon is inherent. He examines the state’s role in shaping a sense of security to reach the truth of why criminal law continues to threaten the freedom of subjects (Noble et al., 2013). Here de Montesquieu wants to show that the nature of crime and how the constitution deals with them is preordained in the formation of liberty. De Montesquieu explores nature as a phenomenon to establish what should be determinative in sentencing (Noble et al., 2013). The nature of the crime and the subject are the primary sources of liberty and security to be accepted as part of the justice of the constitution.
Historical Context
The Spirit of Laws was published anonymously in French in 1748. The anonymity of publication was because political writings were repeatedly censored, and the writings of de Montesquieu were no exception. In a context of pronounced religious domination, political writings that challenged the current socialist order were not recognized. The Church banned the Spirit of Laws for a long time. The ideas of de Montesquieu were entirely at odds with the contemporary notions of politics at the time, as they proposed to divide power, eliminate slavery, and develop civil liberties (Noble et al., 2013). De Montesquieu undermined Christian ideas, rejecting the magical grain and increasingly operating toward rationalism. The political institutions in France at the time were ineffective, and the elite increasingly resisted them, seeking to popularize socialism.
The work of de Montesquieu has been one of the catalysts that set in motion the active work of the Enlightenment. Such writings served as markers of societal change, and the simple division into estates began to be replaced by increasingly orderly organized systems. The political rights claimed by the state did not exist to the extent of ensuring freedom. The work of de Montesquieu does not fit into how France imagined the state’s administration, but it reflects what was happening in society. These societal changes encompass a rethinking of crime, liberty, and security, which de Montesquieu addresses in Book XII.
The Impact
The Spirit of Laws significantly influenced ideas about the organization of the state and political theory in general. The treatise was quickly translated into English and circulated in the United States and England. It was used as a tool for creating their Constitutions and Ordinances, which dictated new political aspects of the state based on law and social aspects. The Spirit of Laws changed the usual principles on which it relied as the basis for developing legislation and political freedoms. Looking specifically at Book XII led to an understanding of who the subject is, the citizen of the country who is obligated to guarantee freedoms independently of the constitutional order (Noble et al., 2013). This seems obvious nowadays, but for its time, The Spirit of Laws was a dramatic shift in perspective on the citizen’s position in society.
The Spirit of Laws is groundbreaking and exciting because it traces the novelty of the idea of freedoms and political rights. The treatise clarifies that the French system was not prosperous and its constitution did not work. Otherwise, there would have been no need to express outrage in the format of the work de Montesquieu. Book XII, in particular, clarifies that the change in history was long and gradual and that political freedoms in 18th-century France were not fully guaranteed. The work allows us to trace what the poorest class, who wanted to oppose the state, was striving for.
Conclusion
Thus, de Montesquieu created The Spirit of Laws to show new ways of developing a political system that would guarantee the political rights and freedoms of the citizen. In examining the global problem of citizen security, de Montesquieu explored how the state impedes it and how criminal justice is deficient. The relevance of The Spirit of Laws stems from its novelty and from the accumulated fatigue of a class that had long been poor in 18th-century France.
Reference
Noble, T. F. X., Strauss, B. S., Osheim, D. J., Accampo, E. A., Neuschel, K., Roberts, D. D., & Cohen, W. B. (2013). Western civilization: Beyond boundaries (7th ed.). Cengage Learning.