The Tatiana Foundation is committed to the promotion and dissemination of civic leadership in society, especially through the training of young people. Leadership characterized by its humanistic roots, oriented toward participation in the democratic definition of the common good.

This vision of leadership has its origins in the Renaissance. As Pocock explains, Renaissance civic humanism understood that the continuity of the Republic did not depend on timeless or superhuman instances but on the civic virtue of citizens and their willingness to participate in the common good.

The School of Salamanca is, without question, the most influential current of Renaissance thought. It debates and reflections on the challenges of the New World laid the seeds of international law, human rights and the market economy.

The Tatiana Foundation, beyond celebrating a historical anniversary, seeks to recover the spirit of the School of Salamanca to address the challenges set for us by the New World of Science and Technology and that already condition our present: artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, globalization and its consequences (immigration, inequality, crisis of democratic representation), etc.

Today, as five hundred years ago, confidence in human capacity should drive us to search for true human progress within such techno-scientific advances. The independence of power, intellectual honesty and public debate form a most valuable legacy for building a future together with a plurality of views.

The School of Salamanca was founded by Francisco de Victoria to whom the United Nations paid tribute by naming the Council Chamber of its Geneva Office after him.

The School of Salamanca represents one of the main milestones in Western thought due to its important consequences in benefit of humanity. Its influence, hand in hand with the first globalization that took place at the beginning of the sixteenth century, was felt worldwide. At the heart of the first globalized political system in history, a group of intellectuals worked for years across disciplines to address the main questions raised by the discovery of the New World and the Renaissance revolution.

The School of Salamanca reflected on the relationship of the nascent modern states with their subjects. This gave rise to the demand for the protection of the dignity of the person in the face of political power, laying the foundations of modern human rights through the Laws of the Indies, which recognized the native peoples of the Americas as fully human persons. The centrality of the person that characterizes this School led to the need to limit violence in dynastic conflicts, creating the Law of War and giving rise to International Law, as universally accepted following the classic work of James Brown Scott: “The Spanish Origin of International Law” (1928).

The magnitude of the economic exchanges between Europe, America and Asia within the Spanish Monarchy attracted the attention of the members of the School of Salamanca. Since the publication of Joseph Schumpeter’s “History of Economic Analysis” (1954), the School’s studies have been recognized as the foundation of Economic Science. The first Salamanca economists were defenders of the positive nature of private property, the charging of interest and the free movement of people, goods and ideas. Above all, they were pioneers in the theory of value, money and fair price.

In 2026, the Chair of Francisco de Vitoria at the University of Salamanca will celebrate the 5th centenary of what is considered the founding date of the School of Salamanca: a community of philosophers, theologians, jurists and what today we would call economists and scientists.

The School of Salamanca plays a part in the beginnings of Human Rights, International Law and Economic Science: three social areas now beset by serious problems and facing great challenges.

For the first time since World War II, the rules-based international order is being challenged by the emergence of international powers based on illiberal models, with strong economic and political development. It is not a stretch to say that we are also experiencing a transition in international geopolitics, with war present within European borders, the conflict in the Middle East rekindled and the return of the great Central Empire from the Far East. The reflections of the School of Salamanca on the Law of War, the Law of Nations and the limits of states is a source of inspiration in facing these challenges.

Moreover, today we are experiencing scientific and technological advances that are not only changing the way we live, work and relate to each other, but that also herald the possibility of changing us as a human species. Genetic engineering allows us to change the DNA that makes us biologically human. The Artificial Intelligence revolution challenges the definition of technology as an instrument, opening up the possibility of it having autonomous human knowledge. Bringing together both of the above, through neuroscience and neurotechnology, raises the question of what we will be after being human.

This is the challenge faced by the members of the School of Salamanca when faced with the discovery of humans so different that their identity was doubted. Economic and political interests always loom behind the debate about the nature of humans. In the sixteenth century there was slavery. In the twenty-first century, there is commercial exploitation and political control. If we know how to update it, the independence and intellectual rigor of the School of Salamanca will be a valuable asset in facing this challenge.

All these scientific and technological changes have not only created a new sector of activity, but have digitized the entire economy, starting with money. Their influence can also be seen in the new social dynamics. The tensions in Western democracies between the globalized elites and the masses who suffer the effects of globalization are creating challenges to the prevailing liberal model. In the face of inequality, post-truth and polarization, the School of Salamanca offers a methodology of critical thinking, open debate and economic reflection respecting the primacy of the person.

The Tatiana Foundation, in addition to collaborating in the anniversary celebration to be held at the University of Salamanca, wishes to propose the spirit of the School of Salamanca as a means of approaching the international challenges we face in the future.

The project aims to update the contribution of the School of Salamanca in meeting the challenges of:

• The interaction between artificial intelligence and the human being: the status of the human being.
• Human rights and political power: the crisis of the rule of law and alternative visions of human rights.
• The new challenges for International Law: war (ius belli) and immigration (ius migrandi)
• Rethinking global, financial and technological capitalism from the perspective of the value of the person

To carry out this project, the Tatiana Foundation will invite certain institutions working in these fields at an international level in Spain to collaborate in forming an International Organizing Committee, complementary to and apart from the committee that may be established by the University of Salamanca when organizing the official centenary.

In the legal field, the World Jurist Association will be invited. In the economic field, the Rafael del Pino Foundation will be invited. In the scientific-technical ethics field, the Tatiana Foundation itself will take part, through its International Center for Neuroscience and Ethics. In order to maintain a direct relationship with the official local commemoration, the Rector of the University of Salamanca will also be invited to participate.

This International Organizing Committee will serve to promote an international project for each of the challenges. It can also serve as the platform for other possible national projects. In addition to joint international projects, each institution will maintain the independence and flexibility to carry out its own projects, which can benefit from the common communicative effort.