Baron Montesquieu's groundbreaking political treatise is published here complete with every part's original notes. Composed over the course of twenty-one years, The Spirit of Laws is a writing of enormous depth, scope and significance. The text itself is comprised of thirty-one distinct books, each of which discusses a specific legal topic in detail. Scrutiny is directed toward law in day to day life, criminality, the law's relation to women, political liberties, and slavery and servitude to name but a few examples. The individual laws in relation to different arms of government, their implementation, and how they should ideally work in practise are detailed. Different types of governance, and the relation of law to wars of aggression and defence between foreign powers, are also discussed.