A Census of Almost 1,000 Copies of the First Nine Editions of Hugo Grotius' De Iure Belli ac Pacis has been Published

As long as there have been societies, there has been some sort of law governing behavior within that society, written or not. Communities, then nations, and also religions, have had their own laws. What did not exist four centuries ago was anything resembling international law, to govern behavior between nations, in times of war as well as peace.

War may seem like the absence of law, and fundamentally it is, but when it does occur, there needs to be some guardrails. Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius realized the need for some laws governing war as well as peace, especially since he was not a pacifist. He believed in some circumstances war itself was justified. He described his views in De Iure Belli ac Pacis (On the Law of War and Peace), first published in 1625. It sets out rules that are to apply between nations even in times of this most fundamental disorder.

The Thirty Years War was raging in Europe at the time, running from 1618-1648, along with the more localized Eighty Years War in the Netherlands and various other wars in Europe that seemingly never ended. It would have been better if Grotius could have written about bringing war to an end, but he was limited by the reality of the European nations, living too closely together. His task was complicated by the religious conflicts ever present. He was imprisoned in the Netherlands over his religious views, necessitating his escape in a trunk and flight to France where he wrote the book.

Four hundred years have passed since Grotius published De Iure Belli ac Pacis and of course the world is now more civilized. Of course it is. Unfortunately, nations continue to have conflicts and wars continue to arise. The book is timely today, as it has been in every age.

A project was launched a few years ago to track down as many copies of the early editions of De Iure Belli ac Pacis as could be found, to identify where they are today and what their history was. The result is The Grotius Census Bibliography Project sponsored by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. They have published the results of their findings in a 784-page book from the Oxford University Press, The Unseen History of International Law: A Census Bibliography of Hugo Grotius’s De iure belli ac pacis.

It describes the nearly 1,000 copies of the first nine editions, published from 1625-1650, they found. They explain, “By analyzing hundreds of surviving copies from collections around the world, we seek to shed new light on how De iure belli ac pacis was read, circulated, annotated, and integrated into the intellectual life of early modern Europe and beyond. Our book is the culmination of five years of research that not only enriches our understanding of Grotius’s legacy but also offers a new lens for studying the global history and modern practice of international law.”

This book is more than just a census. It explores the book's history, application over the last 400 years, and its impact on subjects such as slavery and abolition. Authors of the study are Mark Somos, Heisenberg Professor, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Matthew Cleary, Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Pablo Dufour, Research Assistant, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Edward Jones Corredera, Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, and Emanuele Salerno, Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law.

You can learn more or order a copy of the book by clicking here. You may even get a discount if you use the code AUFLY30