Charles-Louis Montesquieu is a renowned philosopher and encyclopedist of the Enlightenment era, a forerunner of the French Revolution, and one of the founders of liberal doctrine. His central work "The Spirit of the Laws", on which Montesquieu worked for several decades, was immediately included by the Roman Church in the list of banned books after publication. Despite this ban, the treatise instantly gained wide recognition and was translated into all European languages. Written in an engaging and accessible manner (Montesquieu was a brilliant writer, whose style was highly praised, among others, by A. S. Pushkin), the book defends fundamental principles of political freedom and equality of all people.