Hugo grotius biography

London: printed for A. Millar, Butler, Charles. London: John Murray, Grotius, Hugo. De Veritate Religionis Christianae. London: Joannem Nourse, The Truth of the Christian Religion. In Six Books. Translated by John Clarke. London: printed for J. Knapton, Annotationes in Novum Testamentum. Translated by A. Walter Dunne, Grotius, Hugo and Edmund Goldsmid ed.

On the Origin of the Native Races of America. Edinburgh: Unwin Bros. Includes biographical notes by Goldsmid. Grotius, Hugo and Simon van Leeuwen. Volume 2. War, in his view, is justified as a means of obtaining justice in cases where no law court exists to give a ruling upon the matter under dispute. Most of these cases are, of course, international conflicts, such as the revolt of the United Provinces against Spain.

A contestant may take up arms in order to defend his property or his rights, to take possession of what is due to him, or to punish criminal offenses. Thus, war is essentially a lawsuit carried out by armed force because there is no court that can deal with it. Other concepts are also presented in this large book, which is like a warehouse of opinions, quotations, conflicting doctrines, and debates.

In other words, his work pertains as much to general sociology as to international law. This does not differ essentially from scholastic conceptions, and it is somewhat misleading to claim, as has often been done, that Grotius made an original contribution by secularizing the medieval interpretation of natural law. For Grotius, just as for the medieval thinkers and the sixteenth-century Spanish lawyers whom he quoted, the law of nature is an objective datum, an absolute norm given for all eternity.

It is only later in the century, with Hobbes and other theorists, that the law of nature, identified with the instinct of self-preservation, developed into an essentially individualistic, subjective, and secular concept. Grotius, according to Erik Wolf Wolf saw God, nature, and reason as only different names for the metaphysical foundation of life, which to human beings becomes manifest in law.

Society is a natural and necessary form of concrete law because man is a social being endowed with reason. Thus, human society is also by definition rational. These premises served Grotius as starting points for determining the rational quality in social and political life. It was not his purpose to draft a political theory. Various political concepts that seemed essential to his contemporaries were rather indifferently treated by him.

Sovereignty, for example, did not mean much to a thinker educated in the corporative, patrician Dutch republic that was slowly emerging when he was young. Yet he transcended his origins by regarding all nations, sovereignties, and even churches as mere elements of the largest possible social entity, the human race in general. Therefore, the societies under examination appeared to him as manifestations of a social and ethical order in which each social element has its place, determined by its own existential principle.

But all of them are embraced by the corporative unity which is humanity—primarily, of course, Christian humanity. The Law of War and Peace is more than a philosophical and sociological monograph. To make it useful to the practical statesman, Grotius endeavored to determine the justifiability of particular actions that are often taken prior to war or in war, according to simple principles laid out by him.

Although, for example, Gustavus Adolphus is said to have consulted the book frequently while campaigning in Germany, it is obviously impossible to assess the actual impact of its prescriptions on the conduct of war. But this much is certain: the work exercised a profound influence on the development of international law , and even in the present century it is referred to not only by professional lawyers but also by statesmen.

The remarkable mixture of idealistic optimism—for in spite of international chaos, Grotius viewed the ethical content of natural law as a principle that automatically asserts itself, since, in the last analysis, rational and natural behavior are identical—and realism, which sprang from a critical study of history, rendered his concepts and advice applicable to many situations and attractive to many different groups.

Edited by P. Molhuysen and B. The Hague: NijhofF. Oxford: Clarendon Press. New York : Oxford Univ. Corrected and illustrated with notes by Le Clerc. Oxford: Baxter. Translated by Francis W. Kelsey, with an introduction by James Brown Scott. Indianapolis, Ind. Amsterdam: Blaeu. Knight, William S. The Hague: Nijhoff. Wolf, Erik Grosse Rechtsdenker der deutschen Geistesgeschichte.

Tu bingen: Mohr. Jurist, statesman, humanist, known as the father of international law ; b. Delft, Holland, Oct. Rostock, Germany, Aug. Born into a respectable burgher family, Grotius Huigh de Groot was considered a child prodigy. While a boy, he gained international fame for skillful compositions of Latin poetry and was accomplished in the use of Greek and Hebrew.

At 15, Grotius had completed not only his studies in jurisprudence at the University of Leiden but also mastery of philosophy, theology, history, and belles lettres. Grotius began legal practice in as an advocate at The Hague. In , before the Prize Court of the Dutch Admiralty, he successfully proved the right of a ship commander of the Great United Company of the East Indies to take as a lawful prize the ship and cargo of Portuguese who were harassing Dutch trade in the East Indies.

On the basis of this litigation. The manuscript remained unpublished until after its accidental discovery in , except for a portion developing the doctrine of freedom of the high seas that was published in under the title of Mare liberum. In , Grotius became attorney general of Holland and, in , he became first magistrate of Rotterdam. The Dutch phase of his career then ended abruptly during the religious strife between the moderate, liberal Calvinists Arminians , to whom he belonged, and the uncompromising, conservative Calvinists Gomarians.

Grotius was profoundly disturbed by the continuing divisions in Calvinism and strove sincerely for unity among all Christians. In , under Prince Maurice of Orange, Grotius was condemned to life imprisonment. He escaped in and remained in exile virtually all of his remaining life. In , while in France, he completed his monumental work De iure belli ac pacis libri tres On the Law of War and Peace , which was an immediate success.

From to , he served as the Swedish ambassador to the French court. Although the hostility of his countrymen was aroused chiefly because of his theological writings, it was Grotius's work in jurisprudence that earned him lasting fame. He wrote several books on Dutch law and history. De iure belli ac pacis was the first concise and systematic treatise on international law , although already formed in nucleus in the earlier De iure praedae.

His political theory and legal system did not represent a break but rather the continuance and summation of ideas that had their origin in the writings of Aristotle and the Stoics and came through the medieval school to the modern age. In particular, Grotius was aware of and in accord with the ideas on the law of nature and the law of nations developed shortly before him by the Spanish theologians, among them Francisco de vitoria c.

Natural Law Theory. Grotius held the primary bond between men to be their common rational and social nature. The principles of the latter are known to every mature man and form the basic law governing human relations in all phases, namely, the natural law. This law is in conformity with the divine law, although it exists of itself and can be known without revelation.

Indeed, Grotius held that it would be the same even if, per impossibile, there were no God, thus admitting for subsequent development a principle that, by reducing reason to nature, radically transformed the concept of natural law. In the theory of Grotius, the natural law is a real law, enforceable by men in case of infringement by a wrongdoer.

It consists in the first place of certain strict commands and prohibitions. These are self-evident, or can be arrived at by conclusions from self-evident principles. However, principles of the law of nature can also be arrived at in another way, "in concluding, if not with absolute assurance, at least with every probability, that that is according to the law of nature which is believed to be such among all nations, or among all those that are more advanced in civilization" De iure belli 1.

Acceptance of the broad consensus on principles of right and justice is thus the second method of determining the law of nature. But the law of nature is not the only law valid in human communities. It can be supplemented by volitional laws, established by the lawgiver within states based on the consent of the governed, or by custom observed as binding among nations: "For whatever cannot be deduced from certain principles by a sure process of reasoning, and yet is clearly observed everywhere, must have its origin in the free will of man" ibid.

Thus, according to Grotius, nations are subject in their mutual relations to two laws, the basic law of nature and the supplementary, customary law of nations. As real laws, both the law of nature and the law of nations have their outward sanction in force. The use of force is morally permissible in order to vindicate or defend one's rights, or to punish a wrongdoer.

Its ultimate form is war, which can be waged when there are no authorities or courts above the wrongdoing and suffering parties. Grotius recognized in substance the scholastic doctrine of the just war see war, morality of. Every legal right can eventually form a just cause for war. The bulk of his treatise is the quest for these various rights of nations culminating in a system of the law of nations.

As an observant lawyer and practicing statesman, Grotius had to admit that there exist customs among nations that are not necessarily in conformity with the law of nature. Specifically, wars are not always fought for just causes only. He admitted that inevitable ignorance on the part of statesmen sometimes makes recognition of just causes impossible.

Similarly, Vitoria had recognized the ignorantia invincibilis. However, Grotius admitted that wars fought between sovereign nations are legal and produce lawful consequences because the customs of nations — sometimes contrary to the law of nature — consider them as such. Thus, he made the important distinction between the "just war" and the "legal, formal, public war.

The belligerents and third states thus can be subordinated to strict rules of war and neutrality, which is better than to leave application of force without any check. Nations, while entitled to use force, must observe the agreed upon limitations and should introduce certain temperamenta or mitigations to avoid unnecessary suffering. It is out of these that subsequent developments produced the body of humanitarian rules applicable to belligerents.

The deemphasis of the necessary agreement that must exist between the law of nature and the law of nations and the emphasis on the voluntaristic principle of the consent of nations that Grotius introduced in his justification for the so-called "legal, formal, public or lawful war," where both belligerent parties are legally equal and lawfully employing force, was slowly taken over into all fields of international law.

It was not Grotius's intent that this should be so, but nevertheless his teachings became a source of the later development of the positivist conception of international law. Heinlein satirized the Grotian governmental approach to theology in Methuselah's Children : "There is an old, old story about a theologian who was asked to reconcile the doctrine of Divine Mercy with the doctrine of infant damnation.

The influence of Grotius declined following the rise of positivism in the field of international law and the decline of natural law in philosophy. As far as politics is concerned, Grotius is most often considered not so much as having brought new ideas but rather as one who has introduced a new way of approaching political problems. For Kingsbury and Roberts, "the most important direct contribution of ["On the Law of War and Peace"] lies in the way it systematically brings together practices and authorities on the traditional but fundamental subject of jus belli , which he organizes for the first time from a body of principles rooted in the law of nature.

The collection was based on a donation from Martinus Nijhoff of 55 editions of De jure belli ac pacis libri tres. Works are listed in order of publication, with the exception of works published posthumously or after long delay estimated composition dates are given. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools.

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Hugo grotius biography

Dutch philosopher and jurist — Portrait of Hugo Grotius by Michiel Jansz. Delft , County of Holland , Dutch Republic. Rostock , Swedish Pomerania. Early life [ edit ]. Jurist career [ edit ]. Arminian controversy, arrest and exile [ edit ]. Further information: History of Calvinist—Arminian debate. Further information: Ordinum Hollandiae ac Westfrisiae pietas.

Controversy within Dutch Protestantism [ edit ]. Edict of toleration [ edit ]. Arrest and exile [ edit ]. Main article: Trial of Oldenbarnevelt, Grotius and Hogerbeets. Life in Paris [ edit ]. Governmental theory of atonement [ edit ]. De Jure Belli ac Pacis [ edit ]. Main article: De jure belli ac pacis. Natural law [ edit ]. Later years [ edit ].

Personal life [ edit ]. Influence of Grotius [ edit ]. From his time to the end of the 17th century [ edit ]. Commentaries of the 18th century [ edit ]. Revival of interest in the 20th century [ edit ]. Bibliography selection [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Virtual Library of Polish Literature. Retrieved September 28, American Political Science Review.

ISSN JSTOR S2CID A hand-book for travellers on the continent: being a guide through Holland, Belgium, Prussia. ISBN History of Holland, from the beginning of the tenth to the end of the Eighteenth Century, Volume 2. General Books. Thus the ecclesiastical dispute fed and was in turn subsumed by the political struggle between the smaller provinces and Holland.

Prince Maurits attended their service two weeks later, sending a clear signal. Caught up in his dispassionate legal analysis, however, Grotius failed to see the political reality of the situation. Towards the end of June , against the protestations of the province of Holland, the States-General issued a summons to the various provinces to attend a national synod to decide the religious question.

This was followed one day later [on August 29, ] by another secret resolution ordering the arrest of Oldenbarnevelt, Grotius and Hogerbeets, the Pensionary of Leiden. Thus, at the age of 36, Grotius was arrested and imprisoned in the castle of Loevestein on no substantive charge other than being on the losing political side. His meteoric rise to fame and glory was over.

Having much free time, and reading books sent by his friends from Leiden, he produced a large number of new literary works including Annotations on the Gospels, part of his Commentary on the New Testament. In Dutch, he produced Bewys van den Waren Godtsdienst , a Proof of the True Religion designed primarily as a handbook for Dutch seafarers travelling in non-Christian countries.

He also composed a legal tome, the Inleiding tot de Hollandsche Rechtsgeleertheyd Introduction to the Jurisprudence of Holland , which became the foundation of Dutch law until replaced by Napoleonic code in Two years after his imprisonment Grotius succeeded in a fabled escape planned by his wife, in which he was placed in a chest which was purportedly filled with books.

Via Antwerp, he fled to Paris with his brother Willem, where he was joined after five months by his wife and elder children. From to , Grotius fostered the hope of an honourable return to the Netherlands. In , he began writing De Jure Belli ac Pacis.