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Hugo Grotius - Portrait by Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt, 1631

Hugo Grotius (Huig de Groot, or Hugo de Groot; Delft, 10 April 1583 – Rostock, 28 August 1645) worked as a jurist in the Dutch Republic and laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law. He was also a philosopher, Christian apologist, playwright, and poet.

Biography

In his book Mare Liberum (Free Seas) he formulated the new principle that the sea was international territory and all nations were free to use it for seafaring trade. Grotius, by claiming 'free seas', provided suitable ideological justification for the Dutch breaking up of various trade monopolies through its formidable naval power (and then establishing its own monopoly).

England, competing fiercely with the Dutch for domination of world trade, opposed this idea and claimed sovereignty over the waters around the British Isles. In Mare clausum (1635) John Selden endeavoured to prove that the sea was in practice virtually as capable of appropriation as terrestrial territory. As conflicting claims grew out of the controversy, maritime states came to moderate their demands and base their maritime claims on the principle that it extended seawards from land. A workable formula was found by Cornelius Bynkershoek in his De dominio maris (1702), restricting maritime dominion to the actual distance within which cannon range could effectively protect it. This became universally adopted and developed into the three-mile limit.

The dispute would later have important economic implications. The Dutch Republic supported the idea of free trade (even though it imposed a special trade monopoly on nutmeg and cloves in the Moluccas). England adopted the Act of Navigation (1651), forbidding any goods from entering England except on English ships. The Act subsequently led to the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652 - 1654).

Grotius supported the States General of The Netherlands in its conflict with the stadtholder, Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, son of William I, Prince of Orange (William the Silent). He was arrested by Maurice on 29 August 1618, together with Johan van Oldenbarnevelt. Van Oldenbarnevelt was executed, and Grotius was sentenced to life imprisonment in Loevestein castle. In 1621, he managed to escape the castle in a book chest, and fled to Paris. In the Netherlands, he is mainly famous for this daring escape. Both the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the museum Het Prinsenhof in Delft claim to have the original book chest in their collection.

Grotius lived in the times of the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Netherlands and the Thirty Years' War between Catholic and Protestant European nations; it is not surprising that he was deeply concerned with matters of conflicts between nations and religions. Himself a Calvinist, he was a moderate who had many contacts with Catholics and hoped for a reunification of the Christian churches. In 1625 he published his book De jure belli ac pacis libri tres (Of laws of war and peace) where he presented his theory of just war and argued that all nations are bound by the principles of natural law.

On The Truth of the Christian Religion

Template:Arminianism Grotius wrote a book defending Christianity, called De veritate religionis Christianae (published 1632), which was translated from Latin into English, Arabic, Persian and Chinese by Edward Pococke for use in missionary work in the East and remained in print until the end of the Nineteenth century. It was the first Protestant textbook in Christian apologetics, and was divided into six books. Part of the text dealt with the emerging questions of historical consciousness concerning the authorship and content of the canonical gospels. Other sections of the work addressed pagan religion, Judaism and Islam. What also distinguished this work in the history of Christian apologetics is its precusor role in anticipating the problems expressed in Eighteenth century Deism, and that Grotius represents the first of the practitioners of legal or juridical apologetics in the defence of Christian belief.

Grotius also developed a particular view of the atonement of Christ known as the "Governmental" or "Moral government" theory. He theorized that Jesus' sacrificial death occurred in order for the Father to forgive while still maintaining his just rule over the universe. This idea, further developed by theologians such as John Miley, became the dominant view in Arminianism and Methodism.

The Peace Palace Library in The Hague holds the Grotius Collection, which has a large number of books by and about Hugo Grotius. The collection was based on a donation from Martinus Nijhoff of 55 editions of De jure belli ac pacis libri tres.

The American Society of International Law has been holding an annual series of Grotius Lectures since 1999.

Works

De republica emendanda (To improve the Dutch republic) - 1601
Parallelon rerumpublicarum (Comparison of constitutions) - 1602
De iure praedae (On the right of capture), including Mare liberum (The Free Seas) - 1604
De antiquitate reipublicae Batavicae (The antiquity of Dutch republic) - 1610
Ordinum pietas (The piety of the States) - 1613
Defensio fidei catholicae de satisfactione (Defense of the Christian faith)- 1617
De iure belli ac pacis (On the laws of war and peace) - 1625
De veritate religionis Christianae (On the truth of the Christian religion) - 1627
Inleydinge tot de Hollantsche rechtsgeleertheit (Introduction to Dutch law) - 1631
Via ad pacem ecclesiasticam (The way to religious peace) - 1642
De imperio summarum potestatum circa sacra (On the power of sovereigns concerning religious affairs) - 1647
De fato (On destiny) - 1648
Annales et historiae de rebus Belgicis (Annals and history of the Netherlands) - 1657

External links

Bibliography

Craig, William Lane., The Historical Argument for the Resurrection of Christ During the Deist Controversy, Texts and Studies in Religion Volume 23, Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, New York & Queenston, Ontario, 1985.
Dulles, Avery., A History of Apologetics, Wipf & Stock, Eugene, Oregon, 1999.

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 [[Image:Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt - Hugo Grotius.jpg|thumb|230px|Hugo Grotius - Portrait by Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt, 1631]]
 '''Hugo Grotius''' ('''Huig de Groot''', or '''Hugo de Groot'''; [[Delft]], [[10 April]] [[1583]] &ndash; [[Rostock]], [[28 August]] [[1645]]) worked as a jurist in the [[Dutch Republic]] and laid the foundations for [[international law]], based on [[natural law]]. He was also a [[philosopher]], [[Christian apologist]], [[playwright]], and [[poet]].