ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical overview of the idea of consent in the West. It opens with the observation that, with some notable exceptions, consent played a relatively minor role in classical philosophy, and underscores the ancient anxiety of an ethics grounded on consent. It also investigates how classical jurisprudence elevated consent under the ius gentium, so as to manage equitably the practical problem of legal pluralism in the Roman Empire. The chapter proceeds to investigate the cultural importance of consent in the law and theology of the medieval Church and the broader political importance of securing communal consent in general assemblies, as discussed by writers such as Marsilius and Fortescue. The latter part of the chapter investigates the role of consent in modern theorists such as Bodin, Grotius, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. I conclude with a sketch of major influential criticisms of a consent-based ethics.
