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Grotius, Hugo (1583–1645) |
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A Dutchman born Huig de Groot, Grotius was a great scholar and lawyer. However, he was also a politician and diplomat and between 1607 and 1618 served in both of these capacities under the patronage of Oldenbarnevelt, the powerful Advocate of Holland. When Olden-barnevelt fell in 1618 Grotius fell with him and was condemned to life imprisonment. Nevertheless, he escaped in 1621 and fled into exile in France, where he was given a pension and encouraged to make his home. In 1634, following negotiations with the Swedish Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna, he agreed to become Sweden\'s ambassador in Paris. This position – ‘the top post in the Swedish diplomatic service’ – was occupied by Grotius until 1644, the year before his death.
Grotius was a prolific writer, but among his works pride of place is generally given to his magisterial De Jure Belli ac Pacis Libri Tres (Three Books On the Law of War and Peace). This first appeared in 1625 and was the fruit of his first years of exile in France. It was subsequently republished many times. Though students of jurisprudence argue over the scope and general significance of De Jure Belli ac Pacis, there is now wide agreement that it was of great importance in the general development of international law, the theory of the just war, and the notion of an international society. Though diplomatic law itself is not much more than a long footnote in De Jure Belli ac Pacis (Chapter 18 of Book 2, which Grotius entitled ‘The Right of Legation’), it has been well said that in this account ‘the outlines of the modern law are for the first time clearly discernible’. See also Hotman. |
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