The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, likes to invoke international law. Imagine that one day, someone had finally responded to him. Not just anyone, but one of the founding fathers of international law.

It happened just after the Ceuta incident, in July 2026, when tens of thousands people from Morocco surged into Ceuta, a tiny Spanish territory in Northern Africa. The incident caused diplomatic tensions with both Moroccan and European leaders. It was precisely the kind of case that Francisco de Vitoria (1483-1546) used to solve.

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