The Rights of War and Peace

Since the nineteenth century, Hugo
Grotius’s Rights of War and Peace has been the classic work in
modern international law, laying the foundation for a universal code of law.

Grotius’s continuing influence owed
much to the eighteenth-century French editor Jean Barbeyrac, whose extensive
commentary was standard in most editions, including the classic English one
(1738), the basis for the Liberty Fund edition, which includes the Prolegomena
to the first edition (1625); this document has never before been translated
into English.

Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) was a lawyer and legal theorist, diplomat and
political philosopher, ecumenical activist and theologian.

Richard Tuck is a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, and Professor of
Government at Harvard University.