Academic Natural Law in Absolutist Denmark c. 1690-1773: Professionalisation and Politics

• Applicant: Mads Jensen, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Early Modern History
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 497638028

This project is a history of academic natural law and its intellectual and practical significance in the kingdom of Denmark-Norway c. 1690- 1773. In this period, natural law was established as a key academic discipline, through which students were trained in fundamentals of law, politics and social life, and shaped the intellectual and political history of Denmark-Norway. Nevertheless, the history of academic natural law in Denmark-Norway has not been the subject of detailed investigation. Existing scholarship has instead described the reception of the ideas of “great thinkers” (e.g. Grotius, Wolff) as a largely undifferentiated “modern” natural law, soon to be eclipsed by other discourses. This has prevented a recognition of the historical existence of academic natural law and its intellectual and practical significance in Denmark-Norway from the early seventeenth and into the early nineteenth centuries. The reception of modern natural law happened early in Denmark-Norway at the academy of Sorø (1630s onwards). From the 1690s, natural law was established as an academic discipline at the University of Copenhagen, with significant links to Halle, leading to an increase in lectures and publications in the subject. In practical terms, natural law was used to justify the absolutist monarchy, its domestic reforms, and overseas colonialism. The project aims to investigate the full extent of academic natural law teaching in Denmark-Norway c. 1690-1773 and how this informed a professionalisation of the servants of the absolutist monarchy, its politics, and political debate. It engages with a range of printed and manuscript sources, from student notes over printed works to administrative correspondence. The project is structured in three phases. 1) Prosopographical analyses of the professors, authors and works of natural law. A key resource here is the “Natural Law 1625- 1850: Database”, enabling the determination of international connections and intellectual contexts for analysing Danish natural law teaching. 2) Investigation of the practice and content of academic teaching and theoretical discussions of natural law in Denmark- Norway. 3) Investigation of the practical significance of academic natural law for domestic reforms and foreign policy, including Danish colonialism. The result will be a new history of academic natural law in Denmark-Norway and its intellectual and political significance. It will give a new, detailed account of the academic teaching of natural law and the international, academic connections that shaped it. It will also give a decisive new perspective on the international and political history of the period, showing how the professional training of political actors in natural law informed key political developments.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants