The birth of rights universalism from reformed international law. The natural law of Heinrich and Samuel Cocceji and its controversial reception in the European Enlightenment

The aim of the project is to analyse the natural law teachings of Heinrich Cocceji (1644-1719) and his son, editor and continuator Samuel (1679-1755). In a monograph, Cocceji's natural law, which centres on a theocratic-voluntarist concept of inalienable liberties, is to be presented (1) in its political and ideological-historical contexts and (2) in its controversial reception in the European Enlightenment. Forgotten in the 19th century, Cocceji's doctrine of natural law was long neglected in favour of the prominent theories of Pufendorf and Thomasius. However, the project will show that the natural law of the Cocceji represented a veritable, systematically strong alternative to Pufendorf's natural law theory, which was based on the anthropology of defects and embedded in the ethics of duty, and was also perceived as such by many contemporaries until the Vormärz, so that it provided important impulses for the development of liberal-egalitarian theories of rights in the German and Scottish late Enlightenment and can claim an important place in the modern genealogy of subjective rights. The project is dedicated to the development of this theory of natural law in the relatively long period from around 1670-1720 and at the same time describes a history of interdependence: interdependence of genesis and reception, and interdependence of Calvinist (as well as Huguenot) and Lutheran (Halle) early Enlightenment. These interrelationships were intrinsically involved in the development of the Cocceji's doctrine of natural law and must therefore also be researched. This results in a much more complex and differentiated picture of the early Enlightenment characterised by natural law than was previously the case.

Henry of Cocceji
Heinrich von Cocceji (1644-1719), engraving by Johann Georg Mentzel
Samuel of Cocceji
Samuel von Cocceji (1679-1755), bust by Johann Gottfried Schadow
Member of the Research Centre for Early Modern Natural Law
(Gotha Research Centre)

Funding: DFG

Duration: February 2024 to January 2027