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Hugo Grotius

(1583-1645)

Hugo Grotius (Huigh De Groot) was a Dutch legal scholar, playwright and poet.

As a natural law philosopher, he is generally credited as the originator of 'natural morality' and the social contract theory of the state.

His 1609 book promoted idea that seas should be free for the innocent use and mutual benefit of all - an idea disputed subsequently disputed by some Mercantilists.

Grotius's 1625 treatise is acknowledged as the first in international law.

More famously, Grotius argued that property was only the outcome of social consent, and thus had nothing 'inalienable' in it.This conclusion was disputed by Pufendorf.

Major Works of Hugo Grotius

- De Jure praedae commentarius (Commentary on the Law of Prize and Bounty), 1604 (publ. 1868)
- Mare Liberum (Freedom of the Seas), 1609 (Ch. 19 of 1604)
- Déclaration en français de M. de Groot, expliquant les raisons de son arrivée en France, donnant copie d'une lettre, adressée par lui aux Etats généraux... le 30 mars 1621, c.1622
- De Jure belli ac pacis (On the Law of War and Peace), 1625
- Excerpta ex tragoediis et comediis graecis tum quae existant, tum quae perierunt, emendata et latinis versibus reddita, 1626
- True Religion Explained, and Defended against the Archenemies Thereof in These Times, 1632
- De Imperio summarum potestatum circa sacra, 1648
- Annales et histoires des troubles du Pays-Bas, 1662
- Aenmerkinge op de Missive va Parnas, van den 22. January 1685, 1685

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