Il concetto di ’lex’ come vincolo politico nel ’Tractatus de legibus’ di Francisco Suárez

This article analyzes the Tractatus de legibus ac Deo legislatore by Francisco Suárez. In this important treatise – as well as in other works of the Spanish Jesuit – it is possible to identify the nature of those links and logical joints which, taken together, reveal freedom as a key element linking man and nature, on the one hand, with law or political obligation on the other (law intended as a regula et mensura: a rule and a measure dictating what to do and what to omit). With this aim, it is shown how in Suárez law and politics are taken back to theology, which, in turn, guarantees the existence of a bond between the Creator and the creatures, making men totally free to express themselves.