Grotius and the development of international relations theory: The 'long seventeenth century' and the elaboration of a European states system

Grotiana

Volumn 18, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 97-120

  Roelofsen, Cornelis G ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 62949094282     PISSN: 01673831     EISSN: 18760759     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/187607597X00073     Document Type: Article

References (55)

1. C. G. Roelofsen, 'Grotius and the "Grotian heritage" in international law and international relations; the quatercentenary and its aftermath (ca. 1980-1990),' Grotiana, New Series 11 (1990), 6-29. A bibliography of current publications on Grotius is to be found in all issues of Grotiana.
2. H. W. Blom, Causality and Morality in Politics: The Rise of Naturalism in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Political Thought (1995), 187-190.
3. Hedley Bull, 'The importance of Grotius,' in Hedley Bull, Benedict Kingsbury, Adam Roberts (eds.), Hugo Grotius and International Relations (1990), 65-93.
4. Bull concludes at 93: 'The importance of Grotius lies in the part he played in establishing the idea of international society ... Grotius assured for himself a place as one of the master theorists of the subject.' Also Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics(1977), 32.
5. Bernard Guenée, States and Rulers in Later Medieval Europe ( 1988), 167.
6. Gesina H.J. van der Molen, Alberico Gentili and the Development of International Law (1968).
7. Jörg Fisch, Die europäische Expansion und das Völkerrecht (1984), 196-205 (1984). The central issue at Constance (1414-1418) as in the 16th century was the question whether a Christian ruler, finding himself attacked by another Christian power, could call for 'outside' assistence from infidels. The case for 'just defense' was argued by the Polish jurist Paulus Wladimiri.
8. Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World 1606-1661 (1982), 1-6;
9. a general introduction in Jonathan Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall 1477-1806 (1995).
10. The rule cuius regio eius et religio, used at Augsburg (1555) authorized the estates of the Empire to establish in their territories the religious regime of their preference, provided they chose one of the two admitted forms of worship: Roman Catholic or 'Evangelical'. Stephan Skalweit, Reich und Reformation (1967), 403;
11. Euan Cameron, The European Reformation (1991), 348. The maxim also describes the official and factual situation in Western and Central Europe in general, religious uniformity being the norm and toleration of other confessions the exception.
12. There is no adequate full-scale biography of Grotius. A useful introduction is provided by The World of Hugo Grotius (1583-1645). Proceedings of the International Colloquium organized by the ... Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences 1983 (1984).
13. To H.J.M. Nellen, one of the editors of Grotius' letters, we are indebted for a number of biographical studies. On Grotius' political career see C.G. Roelofsen, 'Grotius and the International Politics of the Seventeenth Century,' in Hedley Bull, Benedict Kingsbury, Adam Roberts (eds.), Hugo Grotius and International Relations (1990), 95-131.
14. E. Rabbie, 'L'Eglise et l'Etat dans la pensée de Hugo Grotius,' Grotiana 16/17 (1995-1996), 98.
15. Modem studies of nationalism, notably by Gellner and Anderson, have dissipated the naive conception of 'nationalism' in the modern sense already being present at the start of the early modern period. For such a rough equation of 'sixteenth-century nationalsm' with the nineteenth-century phenomenon see E.D. Marcu, Sixteenth Century Nationalism (1976).
16. For an introduction to the the present state of theory, Bryan Jenkins, Spyros A. Sofos, Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe (1996), 9-32. The problem of 'nationalism' in the Netherlands is compounded by the division of the 'Burgundian State' between the 'Dutch Republic' and the 'obedient' Provinces of the South (roughly: present-day Belgium minus Liège). Religious affiliations (and closely related political sympathies) determined 'national sentiment' in the seventeenth century and would indeed, at least in the Netherlands, continue to do so until the twentieth century. In my description of 'Dutch national sentiment' in the first part of the 17th century I have drawn upon the studies of J.J. Poelhekke and H. de Schepper, Poelhekke being the late professor of modern history at the Catholic University at Nijmegen, De Schepper the present holder of that chair.
17. Rembrandt's painting of Claudius Civilis, commissioned by the Amsterdam burgomasters, is the most famous remnant of what has come to be called 'the Batavian myth' of Dutch history. I. Schöffer, 'The Batavian myth during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,' in J.S. Bromley, E.H. Kossmann (eds.), Britain and the Netherlands V (1975), 189-204.
18. E.O.G. Haitsma Mulier, 'De Bataafse mythe opnieuw bekeken' (The Batavian Myth reconsidered'), Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 111 (1996), 344-367.
19. E.O.G. Haitsma Mulier, The Myth of Venice and Dutch Republican Thought in the Seventeenth Century (1980), 2-5, 38;
20. R. Tuck, Philosophy and Government 1572-1651 (1993), 164-166.
21. E.H. Kossmann, A.E. Mellink (eds.), Texts concerning the Revolt of the Netherlands (1974), 274; translation by the editors.
22. James D. Tracy, Holland under Habsburg Rule 1506-1566 (1990).
23. The thesis presented by the author is resumed in the books' subtitle: 'The Formation of a Body Politic.' A detailed analysis of the development of the States as a governing body is presented by J.W. Koopmans, De Staten van Holland en de Opstand: De ontwikkeling van hun functie en organisatie in de periode 1544-1588 (1990).
24. A.C.G.M. Eyffinger, Grotius poeta (English summary, Grotius, the Poet) (1981).
25. Blom, supra n. 2, at 51 concludes that Grotius in effect 'replaced a constitutional theory by an absolutist theory.' Blom's conclusion agrees with the claims made by Grotius on behalf of the States' authority in religious affairs. See Hugo Grotius, Ordinum Hollandiae ac Westfrisiae pietas (1613); Critical Edition with English Translation and Commentary by Edwin Rabbie (1995), 174,175: '... as is rightly taught by authors on politics, autocracy is equal in all, and he who reigns more widely does not have more rights ... Here the form of government, whether it is monarchic or aristocratic, does not make any difference either. In Venice the senate is the king, in our country the States of every province, seven of which have entered into a treaty under certain conditions.' Another interpretation of Grotius' constitutional thought is advanced by Haitsma Mulier, supra n. 20, at 69, who considers Grotius to be a proponent of 'mixed government.' Mixed government, in which elements of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy were combined, was a constitutional model praised for its stability. Venice, with the Doge representing the monarchical element, was generally considered the best example of a 'mixed state'. The Dutch Republic could be qualified a 'mixed government' by reason of the stadholderate. The stadholder, formally exercising the powers entrusted him by the States, was a quasi-monarch. Grotius' praise of Venice (Tuck, supra n. 20 at 159) might be seen in this light as well as his - unpublished and only recently discovered - tract De republica emendanda, in which he suggested a strengthening of the few common institutions of the Dutch Republic.
26. Blom, 'Politieke theorieën in het eerste kwart van de zeventiende eeuw' ('Political theories in the first quarter of the 17th century'), in Nellen, Trapman (eds.), De Hollandse jaren van Hugo de Groot (1583-1621), 144-153 suggests a transition from an aristocratic model to the theory of mixed government. In the compass of this article I can only indicate briefly some of the strands in the discussion of Grotius as a political theorist. See the bibliographies in issues 14-15 and 16-17 of Grotiana (1993-94 and 1995-96).
27. De iure praedae was not published until 1868, the manuscript having been discovered in 1864. A facsimile edition of the manuscript together with an English translation have been published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the series Classics of International Law. Hugo Grotius, De iure praedae commentarius: Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty, translated by Gwladys W. Williams and Walter H. Zeydel. I will henceforth refer to this translation as Commentary.
28. The only available edition of the Latin text is still H.G. Hamaker, Hugonis Grotii De iure praedae ( 1868).
29. Also, C.G. Roelofsen, 'Grotius and International Law,' in L.E. van Holk, C.G. Roelofsen, A Grotius Reader (1983), 5-15.
30. Commentary, at 285, 286.
31. Legal authors quoted by Grotius are best looked up in the critical apparatus established by R. Feenstra, C.E. Persenaire and E. Arps-de Wilde, in : Hugo Grotius, De iure belli ac pacts ( 1993).
32. Peter Haggenmacher, Grotius et la doctrine de la guerre juste (1983), 222, 223.
33. Martti Koskenniemi, 'The Police in the Temple. Order, Justice and the UN: A Dialectical View,' European Journal of International Law 6 (1995), 328: 'The modern policy-maker or lawyer is neither a (pure) Hobbesian realist nor a (pure) Rousseauian utopian. Today everybody is a suave (Grotian) eclectic.'
34. Carl Schmitt, Der Nomos der Erde (1950), 133, 134 and n.
35. The Latin text, discovered at the auction of 1864, has been published in W.J.M. van Eysinga, Sparsa collecta (1958), 496-504.
36. This has been disproved by J. den Tex, Oldenbarnevelt IV (1970), 172.
37. F. Meinecke, Die Idee der Staatsräson in der neueren Geschichte (1963), 247: 'seine [Grotius'] ganz edle, weich und menschlich empfindende Persönlichkeit';
38. rather more cautiously, Tanaka Tadashi, 'State and Governing Power,' in Onuma Yasuaki (ed.), A Normative Approach to War (1993), 143.
39. Israel, Hispanic World, supra n. 11 at 41.
40. G.N. Clark, W.J.M. van Eysinga, The Colonial Conferences between England and the Netherlands (1940, 1951);
41. C.G. Roelofsen, 'The Sources of Mare Liberum; The contested origins of the doctrine of the Freedom of the Seas,' in W.P. Heere (ed.), International Law and its Sources: Liber amicorum Maarten Bos (1988), 93-124.
42. Supra, n. 24. Israel, Republic, supra n. 11, at 439.
43. W.J.M. van Eysinga, Huigh de Groot: Een schets ('A biographical sketch') (1945), 120.
44. P.C. Molhuysen, Briefwisseling van Hugo Grotius II (1936), 446-448 (1936), letter no. 974, Hugo Grotius to Nicholas van Reigersberch 1 May 1625.
45. William F. Church, Richelieu and Reason of State (1972), 1497: 'Richelieu recognized and even insisted that certain fundamental moral precepts ... could not be observed when the fate of the state was at stake'.
46. Also, F. Dickmann, 'Rechtsgedanke und Machtpolitik bei Richelieu,' Historische Zeitschrift 196 (1963), 265-319;
47. K. Siedschlag, Der Einfluß der niederländisch-neustoischen Ethik in der politischen Theorie zur Zeit Sullys und Richelieus ( 1978).
48. De iure belli ac pacts. Prolegomena, no. 57.
49. C.G. Roelofsen, 'Grotius and State Practice of his day,' Grotiana 10 (1989), 3-46.
50. Paul R. Viotti, Mark V. Kauppi, International Relations Theory (1990), 193.
51. Edwin Rabbie, '"Nobis modica theologia sufficit": il contesto europeo dell'irenismo di Grozio,' Rivista Storica Italiana 106 (1994), 243-261.
52. My translation of a quotation in J.J. Poelhekke, Met pen, tongriem en rapier (1976), 171.
53. A point demonstrated by B.P. Vermeulen, G.A. van der Wal, 'Grotius, Aquinas and Hobbes. Grotian natural law between lex aeterna and natural rights,' Grotiana 16-17 (1995-1996), 55-84.
54. Nellen, 'Disputando inclarescet Veritas: Grotius as a Publicist in France,' in H.J.M. Nellen, Edwin Rabbie (eds.), Hugo Grotius Theologian: Essays in honour of G.H.M. Posthumus Meyjes (1994), 121-144.
55. Grotius's verdict on Richelieu is summarized in the recording of his tabletalk by Guy Patin (R. Pintard, La Mothe le Vayer - Gassendi - Guy Patin (1943), 75) : le 'cardinal de Richelieu qui ne se soucioit que de son ambition aux despens de qui que ce pust estre, ou de l'Estat ou de la Religion'.