Two reports in law of the xv ^th century about the relations between christians and sarracenos. eurocentrism and judicial alterity

Abstract

This work presents the example of a Eurocentric environment in which an incipient notion of judicial alterity is drawn during the first half of the XV^th Century. Particular circumstances are described in which Pope Eugene IV was involved in the expansion dispute of the Kingdoms of Portugal and Castilla for the territories of North Africa. As he needed the support of both Kingdoms because of his weak position before the Basiela Council, where a strong councilist trend was growing, he did not want to rebuff either of the monarch's petitions, who requested the concession of the crusade to take over the territories occupied by the Muslims. Faced with this crossroads, and to orient his decision, the Pontiff requests reports from two lawyers from the Curia. Both represent in part, two diverse opinions of the relationship between Christians and Islamic, in which hierocratic ideas conjugate with others of a iusnaturalist position. It is said that one of the reports can be considered as a precedent neotomism iusnaturalist developed a century later by the Spanish theologians-lawyers of the Salamanca school.