Abstract

After briefly introducing the theme of penalty and punishment in the tradition of the First and Second Scholasticism, we seek to show the development that Tomás de Mercado makes of the concept of restitution in his Suma de Tratos e Contratos written in 1571. In it he defends restitution as an imperative of justice that binds in consciousness and which cannot be dispensed by any power since it is a mandate of natural law.