This essay concentrates on the ideal dialogue that Hegel engages with Montesquieu in his Philosophy of Right focusing in particular on the relevance for Hegel of concepts such as the “spirit of a people” and of “manners” and customs discussed in the Esprit des Lois. Ac-cording to Hegel, Montesquieu provided a real philosophical understanding of the history of people's laws and institutions considering them as necessary relationships within a his-torically determined society, that is as the whole set of its objective ways of being.
