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The Reformation · 1625
On the Law of War and Peace
De Iure Belli ac Pacis
Hugo Grotius · 1583–1645
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What it is
A law of nations grounded in a natural law that would hold, he says, even if we granted that there is no God — with rules on just cause, prisoners, and non-combatants.
Why it lasted
The founding work of modern international law, written by a Dutch Arminian who had escaped life imprisonment hidden in a book chest.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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