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We live in our nations, but what other nations do may affect us, and sometimes immensely. We are all members of the world community of people living in our dangerous world. The purpose of the following book is to consider the laws and practices that govern our nations and, through them, our world. It builds on the premise that unless we change and improve our laws, the human race may not survive in the future. It is not about any particular nation, but about all nations. Many citizens believe their nations are ideal, providing freedom and justice, and with governments representative of the people. This may be true in their minds and according to their beliefs, but the dangers and sufferings of the world continue. They are the concern of us all because they affect all people. The world has changed vastly from the past. It is technically more advanced, but also more dangerous because of nuclear and other deadly weapons and widespread poverty and diseases in overgrown populations. The past, in spite of its myriad wars and premature deaths, has survived. Can our present world, using the same instruments—power nations, “positive laws” strictly enforced, retaliations, and harsh punishments—also survive? The answer may be an unequivocal no reverberating through future power wars. We need a fresh outlook, different laws, and a new phase of global society to replace the past. Legal philosophers have proclaimed many varieties of laws, including “eternal laws” provided by God and “natural laws” according to human nature. Most are nonenforced laws that they say, “Ought to be.” “Positive laws” are those that exist, made and enforced by nations.

An overview of the role of institutions and organisations in the development of corporate finance.

The two volume authoritative guide to the social teaching of the Catholic Church. This first volume covers the period from Genesis to Centesimus Annus - Biblical times to the late nineteenth century. There has been a social teaching in the Judaeo-Christian tradition from the beginning, and it has continued to develop in the Christian tradition through the social witness and teaching of the Church through to the present time. Here is the Christian experience from Apostolic times, through the witness of the early Church Fathers and then Christendom in the Middle Ages, and the periods of absolutisms, imperialisms and revolutions in the early modern and modern world down to the end of the nineteenth century. Rodger Charles, S.J. has been researching, lecturing and writing in London, Oxford and San Francisco for over forty years.