LAUSR

tary rights that correspond to each human being as a bearer of rights. Molina understands ius as the faculty of doing something; if that faculty is subtracted from man, man suffers an injury. The dominium, paradigm of the subjective right, is studied on two levels: as a faculty of being a bearer of rights, and as dominium proprietatis and dominium iurisdiccionis. Within a Christian context, the dominium can only have been given to man by God as a natural gift, which is why man has dominium ex natura rei. Hence, Molina must investigate whether the dominium can be understood as natural freedom and, in that case, what conditions require its exercise, that is, if the dominium granted by God to man has a moral component as well. From there derive many philosophical-political problems—e.g., the relationship between the subjective right of the individual and the bonum commune. The answers to these questions allow Simmermacher to specify the juridical and anthropological status of slaves within Molina’s juridical thought. The dominium presupposes two conditions: rationality and free will. For that reason, these problems can only be studied by considering both the theory of law from De Iustitia et Iure and the metaphysics of free will from De Concordia. The relationship between legal thought and free will deserves special consideration regarding slaves’ anthropological and juridical status. Slavery does not eliminate free will. Molina considers the slave not only as an object of property of another man, but also considers him qua homo et qua proximo. In this way the slave acquires a particular status between subject of right and object of law, and can have dominium by virtue of the ius qua homo et qua proximo. The distinction between dominium over slaves and the dominium of slaves allows Molina to determine their juridical and anthropological status. A theory of fundamental rights begins to emerge from the contributions of Molina’s thought. This volume will profitable for scholars from several fields: those interested in political philosophy, or in the Second Scholastic, or in the refurbishment of natural law within the Spanish philosophical-juridical tradition, will take advantage of Simmermacher’s generally clear exegesis and problematization of complex issues.