The legal philosophy of Hugo Grotius
pp. 365-377
in: Enrico Pattaro, Damiano Canale, Hasso Hofmann, Patrick Riley (eds), A treatise of legal philosophy and general jurisprudence 9-10, Berlin, Springer, 2009Abstract
The legal philosophy of Grotius is complex, complicated, and (above all) eclectic: It fuses strands which might (independently) constitute a jurisprudentia. Since Grotius was an "Arminian" Calvinist who was horrified by the hyper-Calvinist notion that God simply makes justice by an "absolute decree," he was an antivoluntarist in both law and theology; and that is why he Platonizingly says that "even if we were to say [etiamsi daremus] that there is no God," there would still be uncreated natural justice (which is as natural as the truth of A = A or 2 + 2 = 4) (Grotius 1964, Prolegomena, pars 11; see Grotius 1925).
