The Catholic Conception of International Law

Abstract

The fifth chapter tracks Scott’s fascination with Catholicism and his attempts to persuade the Vatican to endorse the brand of international law he championed as conducive to global peace. The first section provides an account of why the Presbyterian Scott believed that the Holy See could play a crucial role in sustaining the moral foundations of global politics. It then moves on to detail Scott’s early approaches to the Curia, marred by the outbreak of the First World War. Section 2 describes how, in the postwar years, Scott was influenced by a Neo-Scholastic movement internal to US Catholicism, tracing modern democracy back to Thomist theology. Scott used these lessons to develop further his argument and enlarge the coalition, promoting Vitoria as the founder of international law. Section 3 tells of Scott’s last and best-prepared approach to the Holy See in favor of international law in the mid-1930s.