Justice
Justice is the legal or philosophical theory by which fairness is administered. The concept of justice differs in every culture, an early theory of justice was set out by the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic. Advocates of divine command theory argue that justice issues from God, in the 17th century, theorists like John Locke argued for the theory of natural law. Thinkers in the social contract tradition argued that justice is derived from the agreement of everyone concerned. In the 19th century, utilitarian thinkers including John Stuart Mill argued that justice is what has the best consequences, Theories of distributive justice concern what is distributed, between whom they are to be distributed, and what is the proper distribution. Egalitarians argued that justice can only exist within the coordinates of equality, John Rawls used a social contract argument to show that justice, and especially distributive justice, is a form of fairness. Property rights theorists take a view of distributive justice and argue that property rights-based justice maximizes the overall wealth of an economic system.
Theories of retributive justice are concerned with punishment for wrongdoing, restorative justice is an approach to justice that focuses on restoring what is good, and necessarily focuses on the needs of victims and offenders. Understandings of justice differ in culture, as cultures are usually dependent upon a shared history. Each cultures ethics create values which influence the notion of justice, although there can be found some justice principles that are one and the same in all or most of the cultures, these are insufficient to create a unitary justice apprehension. In his dialogue Republic, Plato uses Socrates to argue for justice that covers both the just person and the just City State, Justice is a proper, harmonious relationship between the warring parts of the person or city. Hence, Platos definition of justice is that justice is the having and doing of what is ones own, a just man is a man in just the right place, doing his best and giving the precise equivalent of what he has received.
This applies both at the level and at the universal level. A persons soul has three parts – reason and desire, similarly, a city has three parts – Socrates uses the parable of the chariot to illustrate his point, a chariot works as a whole because the two horses power is directed by the charioteer. Lovers of wisdom – philosophers, in one sense of the term – should rule because only they understand what is good, if one is ill, one goes to a medic rather than a farmer, because the medic is expert in the subject of health. Similarly, one should trust ones city to an expert in the subject of the good, not to a politician who tries to gain power by giving people what they want. For Socrates, the way the ship will reach its destination – the good – is if the navigator takes charge. Advocates of divine command theory argue that justice, and indeed the whole of morality, is the command of God
Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet
Sir Alexander James Edmund Cockburn, 12th Baronet was a Scottish jurist and politician who served as the Lord Chief Justice for 21 years. A notorious womaniser and socialite, he heard some of the leading causes célèbres of the nineteenth century, in 1847 he decided to stand for parliament, and was elected unopposed as Liberal Member of Parliament for Southampton. Cockburn was born in Alţâna, in what is now Romania and was part of Habsburg Monarchy, to Alexander Cockburn and his wife Yolande. He was initially educated largely abroad and became fluent in French and familiar with German and Spanish. He was educated at Trinity Hall, gaining a first in Civil law in 1824–5 and graduating in 1829 with an LL. B. degree, and being elected a fellow, and afterwards an honorary fellow. He entered the Middle Temple in 1825, and was called to the bar in 1829, three years after his call, the Reform Bill was passed. Cockburn started to practise in election law, including acting for Henry Lytton Bulwer, in 1833, with William Rowe, he published a parliamentary brief on the decisions of election committees.
In 1834, Ellice recommended Cockburn as member of the commission to enquire into the state of the corporations of England, through his parliamentary work Cockburn met Joseph Parkes and himself became interested in politics as a profession in itself, not simply as a pretext for legal argument. Cockburn had become ambitious and in 1838 he turned down the offer of an appointment in India with the sentiment I am going in for something better than that. He became Recorder of Southampton and from that point started to reduce his election, in 1841 he was made a Q. C. In December 1852, under Lord Aberdeens ministry, Cockburn again became Attorney General, in 1854 Cockburn was made Recorder of Bristol. In 1856, he became Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and he inherited the baronetcy in 1858. In 1859, Lord Campbell became Lord Chancellor, and Cockburn became Chief Justice of the Queens Bench, several Prime Ministers offered to nominate Cockburn for a peerage, and he finally accepted the offer in 1864.
However, Queen Victoria refused, noting that this peerage has been more than once previously refused upon the ground of the notoriously bad moral character of the Chief Justice. In 1875, the post of Chief Justice was replaced by Lord Chief Justice and he died of angina pectoris at his house in 40 Hertford Street, London, he had continued working up until his death despite three heart attacks and warnings from his doctor. As he never married, he produced no legitimate heirs despite having a surviving child, as a result, the baronetcy became dormant upon his death. His remains were deposited in Catacomb A of Kensal Green Cemetery, Daniel McNaghten, Sir Robert Peels secretary, Edward Drummond, was shot by Daniel McNaghten in 1843. Cockburn, briefed on behalf of the assassin, made a speech which helped to establish the insanity defence in Britain for the next century, at the trial, Cockburn had made extensive and effective use of Isaac Rays Treatise on the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity
Law
Law is a system of rules that are created and enforced through social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior. Law as a system helps regulate and ensure that a community show respect, private individuals can create legally binding contracts, including arbitration agreements that may elect to accept alternative arbitration to the normal court process. The formation of laws themselves may be influenced by a constitution, written or tacit, the law shapes politics, economics and society in various ways and serves as a mediator of relations between people. Islamic Sharia law is the worlds most widely used religious law, the adjudication of the law is generally divided into two main areas referred to as Criminal law and Civil law. Criminal law deals with conduct that is considered harmful to social order, Civil law deals with the resolution of lawsuits between individuals or organizations. Law provides a source of scholarly inquiry into legal history, economic analysis. Law raises important and complex issues concerning equality, there is an old saying that all are equal before the law, although Jonathan Swift argued that Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.
In 1894, the author Anatole France said sarcastically, In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal loaves of bread. Writing in 350 BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle declared, The rule of law is better than the rule of any individual, mikhail Bakunin said, All law has for its object to confirm and exalt into a system the exploitation of the workers by a ruling class. Cicero said more law, less justice, marxist doctrine asserts that law will not be required once the state has withered away. Regardless of ones view of the law, it today a completely central institution. Numerous definitions of law have been put forward over the centuries, at the same time, it plays only one part in the congeries of rules which influence behavior, for social and moral rules of a less institutionalized kind are of great importance. There have been attempts to produce a universally acceptable definition of law. In 1972, one indicated that no such definition could be produced.
McCoubrey and White said that the question what is law, glanville Williams said that the meaning of the word law depends on the context in which that word is used. He said that, for example, early customary law and municipal law were contexts where the law had two different and irreconcilable meanings. Thurman Arnold said that it is obvious that it is impossible to define the word law and it is possible to take the view that there is no need to define the word law. The history of law links closely to the development of civilization, Ancient Egyptian law, dating as far back as 3000 BC, contained a civil code that was probably broken into twelve books
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, PC KC was an English philosopher, scientist, jurist and author. He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England, after his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution. Bacon has been called the father of empiricism and his works argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature. Most importantly, he argued this could be achieved by use of a sceptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves. This marked a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, Bacon was generally neglected at court by Queen Elizabeth, but after the accession of King James I in 1603, Bacon was knighted. He was created Baron Verulam in 1618 and Viscount St. Alban in 1621, because he had no heirs, both titles became extinct upon his death in 1626, at 65 years of age.
Bacon died of pneumonia, with one account by John Aubrey stating that he had contracted the condition while studying the effects of freezing on the preservation of meat. Francis Bacon was born on 22 January 1561 at York House near the Strand in London, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon by his wife, Anne Bacon. His mothers sister was married to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, biographers believe that Bacon was educated at home in his early years owing to poor health, which would plague him throughout his life. He received tuition from John Walsall, a graduate of Oxford with a leaning toward Puritanism. Bacons education was conducted largely in Latin and followed the medieval curriculum and he was educated at the University of Poitiers. It was at Cambridge that he first met Queen Elizabeth, who was impressed by his precocious intellect and his studies brought him to the belief that the methods and results of science as practised were erroneous. His reverence for Aristotle conflicted with his rejection of Aristotelian philosophy, on 27 June 1576, he and Anthony entered de societate magistrorum at Grays Inn.
A few months later, Francis went abroad with Sir Amias Paulet, the state of government and society in France under Henry III afforded him valuable political instruction. For the next three years he visited Blois, Tours and Spain, during his travels, Bacon studied language and civil law while performing routine diplomatic tasks. On at least one occasion he delivered diplomatic letters to England for Walsingham, the sudden death of his father in February 1579 prompted Bacon to return to England. Sir Nicholas had laid up a sum of money to purchase an estate for his youngest son, but he died before doing so. Having borrowed money, Bacon got into debt, Bacon stated that he had three goals, to uncover truth, to serve his country, and to serve his church
Radhabinod Pal
Radhabinod Pal was an Indian jurist, who was a member of the United Nations International Law Commission from 1952 to 1966. He was the only South Asian person appointed to the International Military Tribunal for the Far Easts trials of Japanese war crimes committed during the Second World War. Among all the judges of the tribunal, he was the one who submitted a judgment which insisted all defendants were not guilty. The Yasukuni Shrine and the Kyoto Ryozen Gokoku Shrine have monuments specially dedicated to Judge Pal, Radhabinod Pal was born in 1886 in the small village of Salimpur, Kushtia District, now a part of Bangladesh. He studied mathematics and constitutional law at Presidency College, Pal was a major contributor to the formulation of the Indian Income Tax Act of 1922. The British Government of India appointed Pal as an advisor in 1927. He worked as professor at the Law College of the University of Calcutta from 1923 till 1936, Pal became a judge of the Calcutta High Court in 1941 and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta in 1944.
He was asked to represent India as a member of the tribunal of judges officiating at the Tokyo Trials in 1946. In deliberations with judges from 10 other countries, Pal was highly critical of the use of the legal concept of conspiracy in the context of pre-war decisions by Japanese officials. He maintained that the tribunal should not retrospectively apply the new concept of Class A war crimes – waging aggressive –, hence Pal dissented from the tribunals verdicts of guilt in the cases of defendants charged with Class A war crimes. His reasoning influenced the judges representing the Netherlands and France, under the rules of the tribunal, all verdicts and sentences were decided by a majority of the presiding judges. Pal was the father of nine daughters and five sons, one son, Pronab Kumar Pal, became a lawyer, as did a son-in-law, Debi Prasad Pal. He held the view that the legitimacy of the tribunal was suspect and questionable, because the spirit of retribution, and not impartial justice, was the underlying criterion for passing the judgment.
He concluded, I would hold that one of the accused must be found not guilty of every one of the charges in the indictment. Judge Pal never intended to offer an argument on whether a sentence of not guilty would have been a correct one. However, he argued that the United States had clearly provoked the war with Japan, in his lone dissent, Judge Pal refers to the trial as a sham employment of legal process for the satisfaction of a thirst for revenge. According to Norimitsu Onishi, while he fully acknowledged Japans war atrocities – including the Nanjing massacre – he said they were covered in the Class B and Class C trials. In this he was not alone among Indian jurists of the time, fear of American nuclear power was an international phenomenon following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Francesco Carrara (jurist)
Francesco Carrara was an Italian jurist and liberal politician who was one of the leading criminal law European scholars and death penalty abolition lawyers of the 19th century. After having received a degree at the University of Lucca, Carrara practiced law in Florence and Lucca. In 1848, he was appointed to the chair of law at the University of Lucca. His principal work, written there, was the ten-volume Programma dal corso di diritto criminale, synthesising Italian thought in criminal law since Beccaria, it had significant influence abroad. As a young politician, Carrara at first followed Mazzini, and he helped arrange the accession of Lucca to Tuscany, as he regarded it as a first small step towards national unity. Additionally, he had been totally disgusted from the five sentences to death by guillotine which Charles II, Duke of Parma had allowed in 1845. Not by chance, just to solemnize the annexation of Lucca, Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany abolished the death penalty in his state, as suggested for by Carrara, after Italian unification, Carrara was elected to Parliament in 1863,1865 and 1867.
There, he was an member of the commission preparing the Criminal Code of Italy. Named a senator in 1879, Carrara died at Lucca, where many of his manuscripts remain, ein biographisches Lexikon, von der Antike bis zum 20. Obituary at the University of Pisa website
William Blackstone
Sir William Blackstone SL KC was an English jurist and Tory politician of the eighteenth century. He is most noted for writing the controversial Commentaries on the Laws of England, born into a middle-class family in London, Blackstone was educated at Charterhouse School before matriculating at Pembroke College, Oxford in 1738. After switching to and completing a Bachelor of Civil Law degree, he was made a Fellow of All Souls, Oxford on 2 November 1743, admitted to Middle Temple, and called to the Bar there in 1746. Blackstone is considered responsible for completing the Codrington Library and Warton Building, on 3 July 1753 he formally gave up his practice as a barrister and instead embarked on a series of lectures on English law, the first of their kind. In November 1765 he published the first of four volumes of Commentaries on the Laws of England, considered his magnum opus and he remained in this position until his death, on 14 February 1780. Blackstones controversial legacy and main work of note is his Commentaries, designed to provide a complete overview of English law, the four-volume treatise was repeatedly republished in 1770,1773,1774,1775,1778 and in a posthumous edition in 1783.
Legal education in England had stalled, Blackstones work gave the law at least a veneer of scholarly respectability, williams father, Charles Blackstone, was a silk mercer from Cheapside, the son of a wealthy apothecary. He became firm friends with Thomas Bigg, a surgeon and the son of Lovelace Bigg, after Biggs sister Mary came to London, Charles eventually persuaded her to marry him in 1718. This was not seen as a match for her, but the couple lived happily and had four sons. Charles and Henry, both fellows of New College and took holy orders. Their last son, was born on 10 July 1723, although Charles and Mary Blackstone were members of the middle class rather than landed gentry, they were particularly prosperous. Tax records show Charles Blackstone to have been the second most prosperous man in the parish in 1722 and this, along with Thomas Biggs assistance to the family following Charles death, helps explain the educational upbringing of the children. William Blackstone was sent to Charterhouse School in 1730, nominated by Charles Wither, William did well there, and became head of the school by age 15.
However, after Charles death the family declined, and after Mary died the familys resources largely went to meet unpaid bills. William was able to remain at Charterhouse as a poor scholar, Blackstone revelled in Charterhouses academic curriculum, particularly the Latin poetry of Ovid and Virgil. He began to note as a poet at school, writing a 30-line set of rhyming couplets to celebrate the wedding of James Hotchkis. He won a medal for his Latin verses on John Milton, gave the annual Latin oration in 1738. On 1 October 1738, taking advantage of a new scholarship available to Charterhouse students, Blackstone matriculated at Pembroke College, Blackstone was particularly good at Greek and poetry, with his notes on William Shakespeare being included in George Steevens 1781 edition of Shakespeares plays
Cesare Beccaria
According to John Bessler, Beccarias works had a profound influence on the Founding Fathers of the United States. Born in Milan on 15 March 1738, Beccaria received his education in the Jesuit college at Parma. Subsequently, he graduated in law from the University of Pavia in 1758, at first he showed a great aptitude for mathematics, but studying Montesquieu redirected his attention towards economics. In 1762 his first publication, a tract on the disorder of the currency in the Milanese states, much of its discussion focused on reforming the criminal justice system. Through this group Beccaria became acquainted with French and British political philosophers, such as Hobbes, Helvétius, Montesquieu and he was particularly influenced by Helvétius. In 1764, with the encouragement of Pietro Verri, Beccaria published a brief but justly celebrated treatise On Crimes, in this essay, Beccaria reflected the convictions of his friends in the Il Caffè group, who sought to cause reform through Enlightenment discourse.
Beccarias treatise marked the point of the Milan Enlightenment. In it, Beccaria put forth some of the first modern arguments against the death penalty and his treatise was the first full work of penology, advocating reform of the criminal law system. The book was the first full-scale work to tackle criminal reform and it is a less theoretical work than the writings of Hugo Grotius, Samuel von Pufendorf and other comparable thinkers, and as much a work of advocacy as of theory. Almost immediately, the work was translated into French and English, Beccaria opens his work describing the great need for reform in the criminal justice system, and he observes how few studies there are on the subject of such reform. Throughout his work, Beccaria develops his position by appealing to two key philosophical theories, social contract and utility, concerning the social contract, Beccaria argues that punishment is justified only to defend the social contract and to ensure that everyone will be motivated to abide by it.
Concerning utility, Beccaria argues that the method of punishment selected should be that which serves the greatest public good, contemporary political philosophers distinguish between two principal theories of justifying punishment. The retributive approach tends to be retaliatory and vengeance-oriented, the second approach is utilitarian which maintains that punishment should increase the total amount of happiness in the world. This often involves punishment as a means of reforming the criminal, incapacitating him from repeating his crime, Beccaria clearly takes a utilitarian stance. For Beccaria, the purpose of punishment is to create a better society, punishment serves to deter others from committing crimes, and to prevent the criminal from repeating his crime. Beccaria argues that punishment should be close in time to the action to maximise the punishments deterrence value. For Beccaria when a punishment quickly follows a crime, the two ideas of crime and punishment will be closely associated in a persons mind.
Also, the link between a crime and a punishment is stronger if the punishment is somehow related to the crime, given the fact that the swiftness of punishment has the greatest impact on deterring others, Beccaria argues that there is no justification for severe punishments
Thomas Aquinas
Saint Thomas Aquinas O. P. was an Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. He was an influential philosopher and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is known as the Doctor Angelicus. The name Aquinas identifies his ancestral origins in the county of Aquino in present-day Lazio and he was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology and the father of Thomism, of which he argued that reason is found in God. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy developed or opposed his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, the works for which he is best known are the Summa Theologiae and the Summa contra Gentiles. His commentaries on Scripture and on Aristotle form an important part of his body of work, Thomas is distinguished for his eucharistic hymns, which form a part of the Churchs liturgy. Thomas Aquinas is considered one of the Catholic Churchs greatest theologians, Pope Benedict XV declared, This Order.
Acquired new luster when the Church declared the teaching of Thomas to be her own and that Doctor, honored with the praises of the Pontiffs. The English philosopher Anthony Kenny considers Aquinas to be one of the dozen greatest philosophers of the western world, Thomas was most probably born in the castle of Roccasecca, located in Aquino, old county of the Kingdom of Sicily, c.1225. According to some authors, he was born in the castle of his father, though he did not belong to the most powerful branch of the family, Landulf of Aquino was a man of means. As a knight in the service of King Roger II, he held the title miles, Thomass mother, belonged to the Rossi branch of the Neapolitan Caracciolo family. Landulfs brother Sinibald was abbot of the first Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino and it was here that Thomas was probably introduced to Aristotle and Maimonides, all of whom would influence his theological philosophy. There his teacher in arithmetic, geometry and music was Petrus de Ibernia, at the age of nineteen Thomas resolved to join the recently founded Dominican Order.
Thomass change of heart did not please his family, in an attempt to prevent Theodoras interference in Thomass choice, the Dominicans arranged to move Thomas to Rome, and from Rome, to Paris. Political concerns prevented the Pope from ordering Thomass release, which had the effect of extending Thomass detention, Thomas passed this time of trial tutoring his sisters and communicating with members of the Dominican Order. Family members became desperate to dissuade Thomas, who remained determined to join the Dominicans, at one point, two of his brothers resorted to the measure of hiring a prostitute to seduce him. According to legend Thomas drove her away wielding a fire iron and that night two angels appeared to him as he slept and strengthened his determination to remain celibate. By 1244, seeing all of her attempts to dissuade Thomas had failed, Theodora sought to save the familys dignity. In her mind, an escape from detention was less damaging than an open surrender to the Dominicans
Tribonian
Tribonian was a notable Roman jurist and advisor, who during the reign of the Emperor Justinian I, supervised the revision of the legal code of the Roman Empire. Tribonian was born in Side, in Pamphylia, around the year 500 and he was well educated and practiced law before the court of the praetorian prefect. Justinian made Tribonian magister officiorum, although it is not clear when, in 530, after Tribonian had become quaestor, it was natural for Justinian to put him in charge of the next major law reform project and harmonizing the writings of classical Roman jurists. Justinians main objects in creating this harmonized compilation of writings were to shorten litigation. Both the Digest and the new Institutes of Justinian were promulgated in December of 533. In 534, Justinian decided that so many new laws had been passed, and so many older ones harmonized, since the publication of his first Code in 529, a second edition was needed. Hence, the Codex repetitae praelectionis was published, entirely superseding the edition of 529, in 532 Tribonian was removed as quaestor due to the charges made by his enemies during the Nika riots, but he continued to work on the codification.
He was restored to his post as quaestor in 535 and continued in that position until his death, Tribonian continued to help draft new laws for Justinian, these new laws were combined with the Codex Justinianus, the Digest and the Institutes to comprise the Corpus Juris Civilis. Tribonian died in 542 of a disease, perhaps the plague and he drafted about three-quarters of the surviving constitutions of Justinians reign. He planned and directed the work of the Second Law Commission, which produced the Digest, the Institutes and the Second Codex Iustinianus
Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter was a jurist, who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Frankfurter was born in Vienna and immigrated to New York at the age of 12 and he graduated from Harvard Law School and was active politically, helping to found the American Civil Liberties Union. He was a friend and adviser of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Frankfurter served on the Supreme Court for 23 years, and was a noted advocate of judicial restraint in the judgments of the Court. Frankfurter was born into a Jewish family on November 15,1882, in Vienna, Austria and he was the third of six children of Leopold Frankfurter, a merchant, and Emma Frankfurter. His uncle, Solomon Frankfurter, was head librarian at the Vienna University Library, Frankfurters forebears had been rabbis for generations. In 1894, when he was twelve, his family immigrated to New York City, settling on the Lower East Side,25, where he excelled at his studies and enjoyed playing chess and shooting craps on the street.
He spent many hours reading at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and attending political lectures, usually on subjects such as trade unionism and communism. After graduating in 1902 from City College of New York, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and he applied successfully to Harvard Law School, where he excelled academically and socially. He became lifelong friends with Walter Lippmann and Horace Kallen, became an editor of the Harvard Law Review, Frankfurters legal career began when he joined the New York law firm of Hornblower, Miller & Potter in 1906. In the same year, he was hired as the assistant to Henry Stimson, during this period, Frankfurter read Herbert Crolys book The Promise of American Life, and became a supporter of the New Nationalism and of Theodore Roosevelt. In 1911, President William Howard Taft appointed Stimson as his Secretary of War, Frankfurter worked directly for Stimson as his assistant and confidant. His government position restricted his ability to voice his Progressive views.
In 1912 Frankfurter supported the Bull Moose campaign to return Roosevelt to the presidency and he became increasingly disillusioned with the established parties, and described himself as politically homeless. Frankfurters work in Washington had impressed the faculty at Harvard Law School and he taught mainly administrative law and occasionally criminal law. With fellow professor James M. Landis, he advocated judicial restraint in dealing with government misdeeds and he served as counsel for the National Consumers League, arguing for Progressive causes such as minimum wage and restricted work hours. He was involved in the years of The New Republic magazine after its founding by Herbert Croly. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Frankfurter took a leave from Harvard to serve as special assistant to the Secretary of War Newton D. Baker. He was appointed Judge Advocate General, supervising military courts-martial for the War Department and he was commissioned a major in the Officers Reserve Corps but was not called to active duty
Hugo Grotius
Hugo Grotius, known as Huig de Groot or Hugo de Groot, was a Dutch jurist. Along with the works of Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili, Grotius laid the foundations for international law. A teenage intellectual prodigy, he was imprisoned for his involvement in the intra-Calvinist disputes of the Dutch Republic and he wrote most of his major works in exile in France. Because of his theological underpinning of free trade, he is considered an economic theologist. Born in Delft during the Dutch Revolt, Hugo was the first child of Jan de Groot, a prodigious learner, Hugo entered the University of Leiden when he was just eleven years old. There he studied some of the most acclaimed intellectuals in northern Europe, including Franciscus Junius, Joseph Justus Scaliger. Omnes, & emendati, & Notis, siue Februis Hug, in Holland, Grotius earned an appointment as advocate to The Hague in 1599 and as official historiographer for the States of Holland in 1601. The Dutch were at war with Spain and Portugal when the merchant ship Santa Catarina.
The scandal led to a judicial hearing and a wider campaign to sway public opinion. It was in this context that representatives of the Company called upon Grotius to draft a polemical defence of the seizure. The result of Grotius efforts in 1604/05 was a long, theory-laden treatise that he provisionally entitled De Indis, Grotius sought to ground his defense of the seizure in terms of the natural principles of justice. In this, he had cast a net much wider than the case at hand, his interest was in the source, the treatise was never published in full during Grotius lifetime, perhaps because the court ruling in favor of the Company preempted the need to garner public support. In The Free Sea Grotius formulated the new principle that the sea was international territory, Grotius, by claiming free seas, provided suitable ideological justification for the Dutch breaking up of various trade monopolies through its formidable naval power. In 1608 he married Maria van Reigersbergen, with whom he would have eight children and who would be invaluable in helping him and the family to weather the storm to come.
The domestic dissension resulting over Arminius professorship was overshadowed by the war with Spain. The new peace would move the focus to the controversy. The controversy expanded when the Remonstrant theologian Conrad Vorstius was appointed to replace Jacobus Arminius as the chair at Leiden. Vorstius was soon seen by Counter-Remonstrants as moving beyond the teachings of Arminius into Socinianism, leading the call for Vorstius removal was theology professor Sibrandus Lubbertus
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