Leonardus Lessius, an "Important pioneer of European business ethics"

Legal historians in Cluster of Excellence make the work of Dutch legal scholar and moral theologian Leonardus Lessius accessible for the first time - Developed innovative legal and ethical principles - From private law to confession - First volume of edition. The Latin work of an important pioneer of modern business ethics, the Dutch legal scholar and moral theologian Leonardus Lessius (1554-1623), is being made available in German for the first time. The legal historian Nils Jansen from the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" at the University of Münster, who is publishing the edition and translation of Lessius' main work, On Justice and Law, comments: "Like hardly any other scholar of his time, Lessius was familiar from his observations in Antwerp and Frankfurt with the new practice of trading in money, futures and insurance. Drawing on natural law to build a casuistry of confession, he dealt with these observations in such an up-to-date and practical way that his work became a bestseller and went through fifteen editions during his lifetime". The first of ten volumes will be published by frommann-Holzboog Verlag next week. Taking the perspective of moral theology, Lessius is concerned with everything that appears important for spiritual salvation and confession: contracts, inheritances, and donations; political decisions, mineral resources, and hunting rights; marital matters, seductions, and the right amount of alcohol. "From a legal point of view, the private law that Lessius develops rests on principles that are still valid today: freedom of contract and protection of property and physical integrity".