De Jure Pradae Commentarius: An Unpublished Work of Hugo Grotius s (English and Latin Edition)

Grotius, Hugo. De Jure Praedae Commentarius. Ex Auctoris Codice Descripsit et Vulgavat H[endrick] G[erard] Hammaker. The Hague: Apud Martinum Nijhoff, 1868. xvi, 359 pp. Reprint available 2003 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-346-4. Cloth. $65. Reprint of the first edition. Written between 1604 and 1605, De Jure Praedae [On the Law of Prize], which remained in manuscript until 1868, is the earliest significant legal work by Hugo Grotius [1583-1645]. His discussion of prize is not restricted to issues of legality; he seeks to determine also whether the capture of enemy material is honorable or expedient. He pursues these issues through an elegant argument based on natural law. Remarkable for its intellectual finesse and literary quality, De Jure Praedae is equally significant as the source of two of his most important writings. Mare Liberum (1609) is based on one of its chapters. It also contains an early version of De Jure Belli et Pacis (1625). In this regard, the book offers a valuable introduction to the issues explored in these later works. Appended to this reprint is Robert J. Fruin's valuable essay An Unpublished Work of Hugo Grotius's. Written in 1868 and later republished in English in 1925, it remains the principal study of this work.