Primary Texts and Translations

N.B.: This is but a small selection of Grotius’ more important works. For a more complete catalogue, see ter Meulen and Diermanse (1950).

• Mare liberum, Leiden: Elzevier, 1609; reprinted and translated many times since. The translation and edition by Ralph van Deman Magoffin (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1916) contains a facsimile of the 1633 edition. See also the recently published The Free Sea, translated by Richard Hakluyt (done circa 1616) with William Welwod’s critique and Grotius’s reply, edited and with an introduction by David Armitage (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2004).
• [DIB] De iure belli ac pacis libri tres, Paris: Buon, 1625; reprinted and translated many times since. Jean Barbeyrac’s 1735 edition, with extensive notes and commentary, was the most important; it was translated into English and published in London by Innys et al. in 1738. It has been recently reprinted as The Rights of War and Peace, Books I–III, edited and with an introduction by Richard Tuck, Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 2005. Another commonly used edition and translation is by Frank W. Kelsey et al. for the Classics of International Law series, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1925. Kelsey’s version is printed with a facsimile of the 1646 edition.
• Annales et Historiae de Rebus Belgicis, Amsterdam: Blaeu, 1657; translated by Thomas Manley, as De rebus belgicis, or, The annals and history of the Low-Countrey-warrs, London: Twyford and Paulet, 1665. (Scholar)
• Opera omnia theologica, London: Moses Pitt, 1679.
• [DIP] De iure praedae commentarius, G. Hamaker (ed.), The Hague: Nijhoff, 1868. Until fairly recently, the most commonly used edition and translation was Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty, by Gwladys L. Williams et al. for the Classics of International Law series, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950. Williams’ version is printed along with a collotype of Grotius’ manuscript. The edition of Williams’ translation with Martine Julia van Ittersum as editor (Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 2006) has superseded Williams’ original. (Scholar)
• Briefwisseling van Hugo Grotius, P.C. Molhuysen et al. (eds.), The Hague: Nijhoff, 1928–2001.
• Grotius Reader: A Reader for Students of International Law and Legal History, L.E. van Holk and C.G. Roelofsen (eds.), The Hague: T.M.C. Asser Instituut, 1983.
• De antiquitate Reipublicae Batavicae, Translated as The Antiquity of the Batavian Republic, Jan Waszink et al. (eds. and trans.), Assen: Royal van Gorcum, 2000.

Select Secondary Literature

N.B.: In addition to the following (which emphasizes English-language literature), interested readers should also consult the scholarly journal Grotiana (new series), which regularly publishes articles in several languages on all aspects of Grotius’ thought and legacy.

Anthologies

• [Anonymous] (ed.), 1984, The World of Hugo Grotius: Proceedings of the international colloquium organized by the Grotius Committee of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Rotterdam 6–9 April 1983, Amsterdam and Maarssen: APA—Holland University Press. (Scholar)
• Asser Instituut (eds.), 1985, International Law and the Grotian Heritage, The Hague: T.M.C. Asser Instituut. (Scholar)
• Blom, Hans W. (ed.), 2009, Property, Piracy and Punishment: Hugo Grotius on War and Booty in De Iure Praedae—Concepts and Contexts, Leiden: Brill. (Scholar)
• Blom, Hans W. and Laurens Winkel (eds.), 2004, Grotius and the Stoa, Assen: Royal Van Gorcum. (Scholar)
• Bull, Hedley, Benedict Kingsbury, and Adam Roberts (eds.), 1990, Hugo Grotius and International Relations, Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Scholar)
• Dunn, John and Ian Harris (eds.), 1997, Grotius, vols. 1–2, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. (N.B.: This large collection reprints a number of the articles cited individually below.) (Scholar)
• Onuma, Yasuaki (ed.), 1993, A Normative Approach to War: Peace, War, and Justice in Hugo Grotius, Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Scholar)

Bibliographies

• Eyffinger, A.C. et al., 1983, The Grotius Collection at the Peace Palace: A Concise Catalogue, The Hague: Peace Palace Library. [Eyffinger et al. 1983 available online] (Scholar)
• Molhuysen, Philippus Christianus, 1943, “De Bibliotheek van Hugo de Groot in 1618”, Mededeelingen der Nederlandsche Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afdeeling Letterkunde, Nieuwe reeks, dl. 6, no. 3. (N.B.: This is a list of books in Grotius’ possession in 1618.) (Scholar)
• ter Meulen, Jacob and P.J.J. Diermanse, 1950, Bibliographie des écrits imprimés de Hugo Grotius, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. (Scholar)
• –––, 1961, Bibliographie des écrits sur Hugo Grotius imprimés au XVIIe sicle, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. (Scholar)
• Willems, J.C.M., 1980, 1981, ongoing, Grotiana (new series), vols. 1, 2, etc. (Scholar)

Biographies

• Bayle, Pierre, 1720 [1740], “Grotius”, in Dictionaire historique et critique, 3^rd edition, Rotterdam: Michel Bohm. 5^th Edition, 1740, Amsterdam, Leyde, La Haye, Utrecht, vol. 2: 614–620. [Bayle 1720 [1740] available online] (Scholar)
• Brandt, Caspar, and Cattenburgh, Adriaan van, 1732, Historie van het leven des heeren Huig de Groot, 2^nd edition, Dordrecht and Amsterdam: Van Braam en onder der Linden. (Scholar)
• Dumbauld, Edward, 1969, The Life and Legal Writings of Hugo Grotius, Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. (Scholar)
• Edwards, Charles, 1981, Hugo Grotius, Chicago: Nelson-Hall. (Scholar)
• Holk, L.E. van., 1983, “Hugo Grotius, 1583–1645, A Biographical Sketch”, in Grotius Reader: A Reader for Students of International Law and Legal History, L.E. van Holk and C.G. Roelofsen (eds.), The Hague: T.M.C. Asser Instituut, 23–44. (Scholar)
• Knight, W.S.M., 1925, The Life and Works of Hugo Grotius, London: Sweet and Maxwell Publishers. (Scholar)
• Vreeland, Hamilton, Jr., 1917, Hugo Grotius: the Father of the Modern Science of International Law, New York: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)

Monographs and articles

• Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologica, written from 1265–1274. Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Cincinnati, OH: Benziger Brothers, 1947. [Summa Theologica available online] (Scholar)
• Blom, Hans, 1995, Causality and Morality: the Rise of Naturalism in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Political Thought, Ph.D. thesis, Utrecht University. (Scholar)
• Brandt, Reinhard, 1974, Eigentumstheorien von Grotius bis Kant, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog. (Scholar)
• Brett, Annabel, 2002, “Natural Right and Civil Community: The Civil Philosophy of Hugo Grotius”, The Historical Journal, 45(1): 31–51. doi:10.1017/s0018246x01002102 (Scholar)
• Brooke, Christopher, 2012, Philosophic Pride: Stoicism and Political Thought from Lipsius to Rousseau, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Scholar)
• Bull, Hedley, 1976, “Martin Wight and the Theory of International Relations”, British Journal of International Studies, 2(2): 101–116. doi:10.1017/s0260210500116602 (Scholar)
• Chroust, Anton-Hermann, 1943, “Hugo Grotius and the Scholastic Natural Law Tradition”, New Scholasticism, 17(2): 101–133; reprinted in Dunn and Harris 1997. doi:10.5840/newscholas194317217 (Scholar)
• Darwall, Stephen, 2012, “Grotius at the Creation of Modern Moral Philosophy”, Archiv Für Geschichte Der Philosophie, 94(3): 296–325. doi:10.1515/agph-2012-0013 (Scholar)
• d’Entrèves, Alessandro Passerin, 1951 [1970], Natural Law: An Introduction to Legal Philosophy, London: Hutchinson & Co. Second edition, 1970. (Scholar)
• Draper, G.I.A.D., 1990, “Grotius’ Place in the Development of Legal Ideas about War”, in Bull, Kingsbury, and Roberts 1990: 177–207. (Scholar)
• Dufour, Alfred, 1980, “L’influence de la méthodologie des sciences physiques et mathématiques sur les fondateurs de l’école du droit naturel moderne (Grotius, Hobbes, Pufendorf)”, Grotiana (new series), 1: 33–52; reprinted in Dunn and Harris 1997. doi:10.1163/187607580X00053
• –––, 1984, “Grotius et le droit naturel du dix-septime sicle”, in [Anonymous] (ed.) 1984: 15–41. (Scholar)
• Finnis, John, 1980, Natural Law and Natural Rights, Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Scholar)
• Gurvitch, Georges, 1927, “La philosophie du droit de Hugo Grotius et la théorie moderne du droit international”, Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale, 34(3): 365–391. (Scholar)
• Haakonssen, Knud, 1985, “Hugo Grotius and the History of Political Thought”, Political Theory, 13(2): 239–265; reprinted in Dunn and Harris 1997. doi:10.1177/0090591785013002005 (Scholar)
• –––, 1992, “Natural Law”, in Lawrence C. Becker and Charlotte B. Becker (eds.), The Encylopedia of Ethics, New York: Garland Publishers, 884–890. (Scholar)
• –––, 1996, Natural Law and Moral Philosophy: from Grotius to the Scottish Enlightenment, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9781139172905 (Scholar)
• –––, 1998, “Divine/natural law theories in ethics”, in Daniel Garber and Michael Ayers (eds.), The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy (Volumes 1–2), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, vol. 2, 1317–1357. doi:10.1017/chol9780521572330.009 (Scholar)
• Haggenmacher, Peter, 1983, Grotius et la doctrine de la guerre juste, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. (N.B.: This monograph also has an extensive bibliography; see pp. 645–672.) (Scholar)
• Hart, A. C. ’t., 1983, “Hugo de Groot and Giambattista Vico”, Netherlands International Law Review, 30: 5–41; reprinted in Dunn and Harris 1997. doi:10.1017/S0165070X00011876
• Hodges, Donald Clark, 1956/7, “Grotius on the Law of War”:, The Modern Schoolman, 34: 36–44. doi:10.5840/schoolman19563414 (Scholar)
• Hofmann, Hasso, 1977, “Hugo Grotius”, in Michael Stolleis (ed.), Staatsdenker im 17 und 18 Jahrhundert: Reichspublizistik, Politik, Naturrecht, Frankfurt am Main: Metzner, 51–77. (Scholar)
• Hume, David, 1748 [1975], An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, 3rd ed., ed. by L.A. Selby-Bigge, revised ed. by P.H. Nidditch, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Irwin, Terence, 2008, The Development of Ethics (Volume II), Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Kilcullen, John, 2001, “The Origin of Property: Ockham, Grotius, Pufendorf and Some Others”, in A Translation of William of Ockham’s “Work of Ninety Days”, John Kilcullen, and John Scott (eds/trans.), Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellon Press, 883–932. (Scholar)
• Kingsbury, Benedict, and Roberts, Adam, 1990, “Introduction: Grotian Thought in International Relations”, in Bull, Kingsbury, and Roberts 1990: 1–64. (Scholar)
• Korsgaard, Christine M., 1996, The Sources of Normativity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511554476 (Scholar)
• Lauterpacht, Hersch, 1946, “The Grotian Tradition in International Law”, The British Yearbook of International Law, 28: 1–53; reprinted in Dunn and Harris 1997. (Scholar)
• Leibniz, G.W.F., 1710 [1985], Theodicy, ed. by Austin Farrer, trans. by E.M. Huggard, Chicago: Open Court. (Scholar)
• Macpherson, C.B., 1962, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Miller, Jon, 2003, “Stoics, Grotius and Spinoza on Moral Deliberation”, in Jon Miller and Brad Inwood (eds.), Hellenistic and Early Modern Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 116–140. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511498275.009 (Scholar)
• –––, 2020, “Hugo Grotius and the Makings of Modern Natural Law”, in Christianity and Global Law, Rafael Domingo and John Witte Jr. (eds.), London, New York: Routledge, 127–142. (Scholar)
• Reid, Thomas, 1788 [1815], Essays on the Active Powers of Man, in The Works of Thomas Reid, vol. 4, ed. by Dugald Stewart, Charlestown: Samuel Etheridge. (Scholar)
• Remec, Peter Paul, 1960, The Position of the Individual in International Law according to Grotius and Vattel, The Hague: Nijhoff. (Scholar)
• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1762, Du contrat social; ou Principes du droit politique (The Social Contract), Amsterdam. (Scholar)
• –––, 1762, Émile, ou De l’éducation, Geneva. Excerpts in Rousseau 1915, volume II. (Scholar)
• –––, 1915, Political Writings (Volumes I–II), Charles Edwyn Vaughan (ed. and trans.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• St. Leger, James, 1962, The “Etiamsi Daremus” of Hugo Grotius: A Study in the Origins of International Law, Rome: Pontificium Athenaeum Internationale. (Scholar)
• Schneewind, Jerome B., 1993, “Kant and Natural Law Ethics”, Ethics, 104(1): 53–74. doi:10.1086/293575 (Scholar)
• –––, 1998, The Invention of Autonomy: A History of Modern Moral Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511818288 (Scholar)
• Shaver, Robert, 1996, “Grotius on Scepticism and Self-Interest”, Archiv Für Geschichte Der Philosophie, 78(1): 27–47. doi:10.1515/agph.1996.78.1.27 (Scholar)
• Simmonds, Kenneth R., 1957, “Some English Precursors of Hugo Grotius”, Transactions of the Grotius Society, 43: 143–157. (Scholar)
• –––, 1957/8, “Hugo Grotius and Alberico Gentili”, Jahrbuch für Internationales Recht, 8: 85–100. (Scholar)
• Straumann, Benjamin, 2006, “‘Ancient Caesarian Lawyers’ in a State of Nature: Roman Tradition and Natural Rights in Hugo Grotius’s De Iure Praedae”, Political Theory, 34(3): 328–350. doi:10.1177/0090591706286459 (Scholar)
• –––, 2007, Hugo Grotius und die Antike, Baden-Baden: NOMOS. (Scholar)
• –––, 2015, Roman Law in the State of Nature: The Classical Foundations of Hugo Grotius’ Natural Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9781316143629 (Scholar)
• Suarez, Francisco, 1612 [1944], De Legibus, ac De Legislatore, trans. by Gwladys L. Williams, Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Scholar)
• Tanaka, Tadashi, 1993, “Grotius’ Method: with Special Reference to Prolegomena”, in Onuma 1993: 11–31. (Scholar)
• Tierney, Brian, 1983, “Tuck on Rights: Some Medieval Problems”, History of Political Thought, 4(3): 429–441. (Scholar)
• –––, 1997, The Idea of Natural Rights, Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press. (Scholar)
• Todescan, Franco, 2003, Etiamsi Daremus: Studi Sinfonici sul Diritto Naturale, Padua: CEDAM. (Scholar)
• Tuck, Richard, 1979, Natural Rights Theories: Their Origin and Development, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9781139163569 (Scholar)
• –––, 1983, “Grotius, Carneades and Hobbes”, Grotiana (new series), 4: 43–62; reprinted in Dunn and Harris 1997. doi:10.1163/187607583x00050 (Scholar)
• –––, 1987, “The ‘Modern’ Theory of Natural Law”, in The Languages of Political Theory in Early-Modern Europe, Anthony Pagden (ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 99–120. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511521447.006 (Scholar)
• –––, 1991, “Grotius and Selden”, in The Cambridge History of Political Thought 1450–1700, J. H. Burns and Mark Goldie (eds.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 499–529. doi:10.1017/chol9780521247160.019 (Scholar)
• –––, 1993, Philosophy and Government 1572–1651, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511558634 (Scholar)
• –––, 1999, The Rights of War and Peace. Political Thought and the International Order from Grotius to Kant, Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199248148.001.0001 (Scholar)
• –––, 2005, “Introduction” to The Rights of War and Peace (Books I–III), by Hugo Grotius, reprinted Indianapolis: Liberty Fund. [Tuck 2005 available online] (Scholar)
• van Ittersum, Martine, 2002, Profit and Principle: Hugo Grotius, Natural Rights Theories and the Rise of Dutch Power in the East Indies, 1595–1615, Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University. (Scholar)
• –––, 2006, “Note on the Text”, in Grotius, Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty, Martine van Ittersum (ed.), Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund. (Scholar)
• Vermeulen, B. P., 1983, “Grotius’ Methodology and System of International Law”, Netherlands International Law Review, 30(3): 374–382. doi:10.1017/s0165070x00012006 (Scholar)
• Vollenhoven, C. Van, 1932, The Framework of Grotius’ Book De Iure Belli ac Pacis (1625), Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche uitgeversmaatschappij. (Scholar)
• Whewell, William, 1853, “Editor’s Preface”, in William Whewell (ed. and trans.), Hugonis Grotii de iure belli ac pacis, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, iii–xvi. (Scholar)
• Wight, Martin, 1991, International Theory: the Three Traditions, Gabriele Wight and Brian Porter (eds.), Leicester: Leicester University Press. (Scholar)