Grotius, Hugo van

GROTIUS, Hugo van. - Dutch jurist, b. at Delft on 16 April 1583, d. at Rostock on 28 Aug. 1645. He studied classical languages and literatures at Leiden, then, having gone to France with the grand pensionary Oldenbarneveldt on an embassy to Henry IV, he took his doctorate in law at Orléans (1598).

A lawyer at The Hague, there he wrote the De iure praedae commentarius (posthumous, The Hague 1868), of which he released to the public only an anonymous part, and the Mare liberum (Leiden 1609), against the English claims to dominion over the seas. While continuing to cultivate historical, legal and literary studies (he in fact edited editions of Martianus Capella [1599], of Theocritus, Moschus, Bion and Simmias [1604], of Lucan [1614], and wrote a Liber de antiquitate Reipublicae Batavicae [Leiden 1610]), he entered political life. In 1607 he was advocate-general of the provinces of Holland, Zeeland and West Frisia; in 1613 he was part of an embassy to England, both to settle conflicts relating to Indian trade and to plead before James I the cause of the Remonstrants. Also in 1613 he became pensionary of Rotterdam. In the political-religious struggles of the time he was at first favorable to the intervention of the State in religious questions, even against synodal decisions, in the name of the public interest, as he maintained in the De imperio summarum potestatum circa sacra (Paris 1614). A follower of Arminianism, he advocated moderation and tolerance in the name of a humanistic ideal of freedom that links him back to Erasmus and sets him against both the Lutheran justification by faith alone and the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. He professed respect for dogma, subordinating reason to it, while not considering it contrary to reason. A reassertion of the redeeming function of Christ is his Defensio de satisfactione Christi adversus Socinum (Leiden 1617). His tolerant attitude subsequently guided him toward an ideal of religious universalism, of which the State was to make itself the instrument. The victory of the Gomarists at the Synod of Dordrecht (1618), and the consequent condemnation of the Arminians, led to the death of Oldenbarneveldt and to G.'s condemnation to life imprisonment (1619). Having managed to escape adventurously after two years with the help of his wife, he took refuge in Paris, where he resumed his action on a theoretical level, combating the Pelagian doctrines in the Disquisitio an Pelagiana sint ea dogmata quae nunc sub eo nomine traduntur (Paris 1622); the De veritate religionis Christianae (Leiden 1627), the Via ad pacem ecclesiasticam (Paris 1642), the Votum pro pace ecclesiastica contra Rivetum (Amsterdam 1642) take up again the theme dear to him of political understanding founded on the sharing of Christian ideals, bringing him closer to Catholic positions. In the Annotationes in libros Evangeliorum (ibid. 1641), on the Vetus Testamentum (Paris 1644) and on the Novum Testamentum (posthumous, ibid. 1646-50) he takes up Erasmus's aim of a scientific criticism of the Bible intended to restore the true Christian doctrine. Nor did he forget historical studies, publishing a Dissertatio de origine gentium Americanarum (Amsterdam 1642) and a Dissertatio altera on the same subject (Paris 1643). As early as 1634 he had been appointed ambassador of Sweden to Paris, but, having had no success in the new diplomatic post, he had himself relieved of it in 1645. Known above all for the De iure belli ac pacis (ibid. 1625), he was hailed for this work as the father of modern natural law. Its aim is the founding of a science of law universally valid, so as to guarantee a theoretically secure basis for the peaceful coexistence of nations; to this end G. distinguishes the state and law of nature from the civil state and law, ius naturale from ius voluntarium. The former arises from a natural need of the human soul, the appetitus societatis, according to what Aristotle had already affirmed, and is therefore not empirically derivable from human acts and will, as the latter is. Founded only mediately on the divine will, insofar as this is still the source of human nature, it is valid « etiamsi daremus... non esse Deum » (Proleg., § 11) and is « adeo immutabile ut ne a Deo quidem mutari queat » (I, 1, § 10). The state of nature is therefore governed by this absolute ius naturale, and is a condition of peace, freedom and communion of goods. With the development of society through consensual pacts comes the transition to the civil state. This arises from a free contract in order to harmonize interests, regulating them by the ius civile, whose ultimate foundation, through the pact, is always natural law. The sovereignty of the State, born from the contract, is therefore superior to individual wills. But this dominium eminens must be exercised in the common interest and to guarantee the implementation of natural law. In the international field, in the absence of a supreme entity, the norms have no imperative but consensual character, and their foundation is precisely natural justice. G.'s omnia opera theologica are on the Index (decree of 10 May 1757).

Gurvitch, La philosophie du droit de H. Grotius et la théorie moderne du droit international, in Revue de métaphysique et de morale, 34 (1927), pp. 365 ff.; E. Wolf, Grosse Rechtslehrer der deutschen Geistesgeschichte, Tübingen 1939; A. Corsano, U. Grozio, l'umanista, il teologo, il giurista, Bari 1948; A. Droetto, Grozio e il concetto di natura come principio del diritto, in Rivista internazionale di filosofia del diritto, 25 (1948), pp. 374-493; G. Fassò, U. Grozio tra medioevo ed età moderna, in Rivista di filosofia, 41 (1950), pp. 174-90.

Sergio Cotta