Question #3c646
1 Answer
For Grotius, wars may be justly undertaken in response either to “wrongs not yet committed, or to wrongs already done" (on condition that they are just causes) and when judicial settlement fails.
Explanation:
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In his book De iure belli ac pacis (“DIB”, On The Law of War and Peace), Grotius make a distinction between:
- ius ad bellum - the right to go to war;
- and ius in bello - the right conduct in war.
In the present question the interest is on the first criterion.
The justification of going to war is the Will of God and we can be sure that God wills that we should go to war when we are compelled to it by all three major kinds of law—the law of nature, the law of nations or international law, and divine law.
In his work he lists, in a detailed and systematic way, what are the 'wrongs' that are just causes for a war.
He also sets limits for a just war.
As to Hugo Grotius' biography, here goes a resumé:
Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) was a Dutch jurist and scholar (also a statesman and diplomat) who, along the earlier works of Francisco de Vitoria and Alberto Gentili, laid the foundations of international law ( ius gentium ), based on natural law. His political thoughts are influenced by his religious convictions on the Arminianism (preached by Jacobus Arminius and John Wesley).
Other important work of his is De iure praedae commentarius (Commentary on the law of prize and booty), in which Grotius was to defend the capture of a large Portuguese merchant ship by a V.O.C. (Dutch East India Company) fleet in the area around modern-day Singapore. Specially interesting are the Prolegomena of Chapter 2, where Grotius lays his views on nature and base of rights and the Chapter 12 ( Mare Liberum or On the freedom of the seas) that received a critical reply by the Englishman John Selden.
