Montesquieu's 1748 comparative analysis of laws and governments across cultures — arguing for the separation of powers (executive, legislative, judicial) and that political systems must suit the climate, terrain, and customs of their population — the most influential political text on the American Constitution.
Introduced the separation of powers as the constitutional mechanism for preventing tyranny — liberty requires that power check power — and the comparative method for studying law: legal systems can only be understood in relation to the social conditions that produced them.
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