Hugo Grotius - DE JURE BELLI AC PACIS - 1680

Ugo Grozio, De jure belli ac pacis libri tres, Amsterdam, Janssonio-Waesbergios, 1680: a sixty-page Latin edition of a fundamental work in the history of international law.

[12], 680, [10] ,31, [11] , 216 ,[108] 8*

Book in very good condition, leather cover with some marginal scuffs on the outer parts, label with title and gilded ornaments on the spine, inner pages fresh and without signs of damp, rot, or termites.
Grozio seeks to demonstrate that even war must respect legal and moral rules. The work examines:

* Book I: what war is and who has the right to initiate it.
* Book II: the causes that may justify it, with discussions on property, obligations, and rights.
* Book III: the conduct of combatants and the limits of actions during the conflict.

The treatise contributed profoundly to the development of international law, natural law, and reflections on state sovereignty.

The other works included in the volume:

* Annotata in Epistolam Pauli ad Philemonem: annotations to Paul the Apostle’s letter to Philemon.
* Dissertatio de Mari libero: the treatise on freedom of the seas.
* De aequitate, indulgentia et facilitate: a tract on equity, leniency, and facilitation, published from the author’s manuscript by Nicolaus Blancardus.
* Gronovius’s notes on the entire De jure belli ac pacis.

The Mare liberum, originally published in 1609, defends the freedom of navigation and marine commerce: another decisive contribution by Grozio to the history of law.

Ugo Grozio (1583–1645) was a Dutch jurist, humanist, and diplomat, born in Delft. Enlightened at a very young age, he entered Leiden University at eleven. Involved in the political and religious conflicts of the Netherlands, he was condemned to life imprisonment; in 1621 he escaped hidden in a chest intended for transporting books, with the help of his wife Maria. He took refuge in France, where he published his great treatise, and later represented Sweden as ambassador to Paris.