Pufendorf on Confessional Strife and Interstate Relations

Abstract The present chapter analyses Samuel Pufendorf’s understanding of the international legal order and how it was shaped by his reflections on topics that are conventionally distinguished from international law in academic study, namely, religious toleration and theology. The first and second sections examine the post-Westphalian system in the Holy Roman Empire and the importance of keeping the promises made between states. The third section takes up the theological dimension of Pufendorf’s thinking in Jus feciale divinum (1695) and the covenant or federal theology it involves. Parallels are consequently drawn between Pufendorf’s arguments on covenants with treaties in international law. The concluding section studies these aspects in further detail and shows the extent to which Pufendorf’s conception of international law reflects the pattern of his theology.