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The legal philosophy of Hugo Grotius

Patrick Riley

pp. 365-377

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).

Publication details

DOI: 10.1007/978-90-481-2964-5_10

Full citation:

Riley, P. (2009)., The legal philosophy of Hugo Grotius, in E. Pattaro, D. Canale, H. Hofmann & P. Riley (eds.), A treatise of legal philosophy and general jurisprudence 9-10, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 365-377.

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