This volume traces the theory that humanity forms a single community and that there exists a body of law governing the relations among the members of the community. These ideas appeared in medieval writings and paved the way for notions of international legal order and universal norms of behaviour.

The articles in this volume trace the development of the theory that humanity forms a single world community and that there exists a body of law governing the relations among the members of the community. These ideas first appeared in the writings of the medieval canon lawyers and recieved their fullest development in the writings of early modern Spanish intellectuals. Conflict and contact with the "infidel" provided a stimulus for the elaboration of these ideas in the later Middle Ages, but major impetus was given by the English subjugation of Ireland, and by the discovery of the Americas. This work paved the way for the modern notions of international legal order and universal norms of behaviour, usually associated with the publication of Hugo Grotius's work in the 17th century.

Canon law and expansion: extra ecclesiam non est imperium - the canonists and the legitimacy of secular power
a canonistic contribution to the formation of international law
the contribution of the medieval canon lawyers to the formation of international law
Papal responsibility for the infidel
another look at Alexander VI's "Inter ceatera"
the Avignon papacy and the frontiers of Christendom - the evidence of Vatican register 62
John Wyclif and the rights of the infidels
the "Requerimiento" re-examined
the development of group rights. World order: Solorzano's "De indiarum iure" - applying a mediaeval theory of world order in the 17th century
the conquest of the Americas - the Spanish search for global order. Ireland and America: spiritual conquests compared - "Laudabiliter" and the conquest of the Americas
the remonstrance of the Irish princes and the canon law tradition of the just war
the Indian as Irishman.