68 research outputs found
Doppelgänger Dilemmas? AngloDutch relations in the early modern period, as viewed through the prism of print, theatre and language
Danny Noorlander, Heaven’s Wrath:The Protestant Reformation and the Dutch West India Company in the Atlantic World
Debating Natural Law in the Banda Islands:A Case Study in Anglo-Dutch Imperial Competition in the East Indies, 1609-1621
Confiscated Manuscripts And Books:What Happened to the Personal Library and Archive of Hugo Grotius Following His Arrest on Charges of High Treason in August 1618?
Debating the Free Sea in London, Paris, The Hague and Venice:The Publication of John Selden’s <i>Mare Clausum</i> (1635) and Its Diplomatic Repercussions in Western Europe
Global Constitutionalism in the Early Modern Period:The Role of Empires, Treaties and Natural Law
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Empire by Treaty?:The role of written documents in European overseas expansion, 1500-1800
Global constitutionalism in the early modern period: the role of empires, treaties and natural law
This chapter offers a critique of the fetishism of treaties in twenty-first century international law and international relations, particularly the lazy and mistaken assumption that treaties are ironclad guarantees for the rights of indigenous peoples. It explores the relationship between European expansion overseas, treaty-making and natural law in the early modern period, focusing on the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius (1583-1645). The man hailed in the twentieth century as ‘father of international law’ was known in his own time for his steadfast support of the Dutch East India Company or VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie). Grotius’ understanding of natural law cannot be separated from his justification of Dutch empire-building in the East Indies. There was nothing equal about the VOC’s treaty relationship with the inhabitants of the Spice Islands, for example. Grotius knew this. Indeed, he vigorously defended these unequal treaties in De Jure Praedae, written in 1604-1608, and, of course, in De Jure Belli ac Pacis (On the Law of War and Peace), first published in 1625. The VOC and the native inhabitants of the Spice Islands were bound together in a protection/tribute exchange. Crucially, it was up to the VOC to monitor indigenous performance of the treaties. If it deemed the islanders deficient in any way, it could punish them as transgressors of the natural law, waging a ‘just war’ against them. By these means, the VOC became, first, co-ruler in the Spice Islands, and, subsequently, a full-fledged sovereign. The history of treaty-making, then, is closely connected with that of Western imperialism and colonialism. It is no panacea for the protection of indigenous rights
Marco Barducci. Hugo Grotius and the Century of Revolution, 1613–1718: Transnational Reception in English Political Thought.
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