Acquiring Empire by Law: From Roman Doctrine to Early Modern European Practice

Abstract

What role did the Roman legal concept ofres nullius(things without owners), or the related concept ofterra nullius(land without owners), play in the context of early modern European expansion? Scholars have provided widely different answers to this question. Some historians have argued that European claims based onterra nulliusbecame a routine part of early modern interimperial politics, particularly as a response by the English and French crowns to expansive Iberian claims supported by papal donations. Others have countered that allusions toterra nulliusmarked a temporary phase of imperial discourse and that claimants relied more often on other rationales for empire, rarely mentioningres nulliusorterra nulliusand often explicitly recognizing the ownership rights, and even the sovereignty, of local polities and indigenous peoples.