"The law of nature of which we have spoken, comprising alike that which relates to the social life of man and that which is so called in a larger sense, proceeding as it does from the essential traits implanted in man, can nevertheless be attributed to God, because of his having willed that such traits exist in us."
In the United States’ Capitol, twenty-three marble relief
portraits of historical figures central to the principles of American law oversee
the House Chamber. These portraits include Moses, Pope Gregory IX, Sir William
Blackstone, and Hugo Grotius. In truth, Grotius’s jurisprudence was considered
authoritative by the American Founders.
A diplomat, lawyer, magistrate, scholar, and teacher, Grotius
was born in Delft, Holland, on April 10, 1583. In 1625, the excesses of the
Thirty Years’ War compelled Grotius, a lifelong opponent of tyranny, to
write his magnum opus, The Law of War and Peace, which is an excellent
example of the many treatises on natural law written by jurists and theologians
in western Europe between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. For this reason,
Grotius is considered the father of international law.
The concept of man’s natural rationality and sociability
is central to Grotius’s understanding of natural law. What distinguishes
man from the beasts is reason, which perceives that justice is a virtue, apart
from any considerations of self-interest or expediency. Further, due to this
natural rationality, man seeks society with others, possesses speech, and is
inclined to behave justly, despite the fact that some choose not to follow their
true nature. From these principles of rationality and sociability, Grotius derives
his concept of human law: “To this sphere of law belong the abstaining
from that which is another’s, the restoration to another of anything of
his which we may have, together with any gain which we may have received from
it; the obligation to fulfill promises, the making good of a loss incurred through
our fault, and the inflicting of penalties upon men according to their deserts.”
Grotius’s thought is a watershed in the history of Protestant
natural-law thinking because he grounded natural law in human nature rather
than in the command of God. In spite of this, he still maintains a close connection
to the classical tradition, in contrast to his contemporary Thomas Hobbes.
Sources: The Law of War and Peace, by Hugo Grotius (Carnegie
Foundation for International Peace, 1925), and The
History of Political Philosophy, edited by Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey
(University of Chicago Press, 1987).
