Grotius Publishes On the Law of War and Peace

1625

The Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius, writing from exile in Paris, published De Jure Belli ac Pacis, arguing that nations were bound by natural law and mutual obligation even in wartime. International law had a founding document, and the modern idea of human rights one of its earliest blueprints. Diplomats and philosophers would cite Grotius for centuries as the father of their discipline.