Commentary On The Law Of Prize And Booty De Jure Praedae Commentarius

"Commissioned in October 1604 by the United Dutch East India Company, Hugo Grotius's Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty was intended to justify the Dutch capture in 1603 of a wealthy Portuguese merchantman, the Santa Catarina, in the Strait of Singapore. In a clever and intricate defense of international free trade, Grotius (1583-1645) introduced the notion of a man as a sovereign and free individual with a right to self-defense and, by extension, the right of a company of private merchants to establish a trade empire."--Jacket.

This book is a fundamental reassessment of the nature and impact of legal humanism on the development of law in Europe. It brings together the foremost international experts in related fields such as legal and intellectual history to debate central issues