Editing Hugo Grotius (section)

==Jurist career==
[[File:Grotius de iure praedae.jpg|thumb|upright|Page written in Grotius' hand from the manuscript of ''De Indis'' (circa 1604/05)]]

The Dutch were at [[Eighty Years' War|war with Spain]]; although Portugal was [[Dynastic union|closely allied]] with Spain, it was not yet [[Dutch–Portuguese War|at war with the Dutch]]. Near the start of the war, Grotius's cousin captain [[Jacob van Heemskerk]] captured a loaded Portuguese [[carrack]] merchant ship, ''[[Santa Catarina (ship)|Santa Catarina]]'', off present-day Singapore in 1603.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/history/events/48d0a785-2b61-467a-8c85-f2728e33702c |title=The Santa Catarina Incident |date=2021 |publisher=The National Library Board, Government of Singapore |access-date=2021-04-01 |quote=[The Santa Catarina] was taken under the laws of war by Dutch Admiral Jacob van Heemskerk}}</ref> Heemskerk was employed with the United Amsterdam Company (part of the [[Dutch East India Company]]), and though he did not have authorization from the company or the government to initiate the use of force, many shareholders were eager to accept the riches that he brought back to them.{{sfn|van Ittersum|2006|loc=Chap. 1}}

Not only was the legality of keeping the [[prize (law)|prize]] questionable under Dutch statute, but a faction of shareholders (mostly [[Mennonite]]) in the Company also objected to the forceful seizure on moral grounds, and of course, the Portuguese demanded the return of their cargo. The scandal led to a public judicial hearing and a wider campaign to sway public (and international) opinion. {{citation needed|date=June 2015}} It was in this wider context that representatives of the Company called upon Grotius to draft a [[polemic]]al defence of the seizure.{{sfn|van Ittersum|2006|loc=Chap. 1}}

[[File:Mierevelt grotius 1608.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Portrait of Grotius at age 25 ([[Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt]], 1608)]]

The result of Grotius' efforts in 1604/05 was a long, theory-laden treatise that he provisionally entitled ''De Indis'' (''On the Indies''). Grotius sought to ground his defense of the seizure in terms of the natural principles of justice. In this, he had cast a net much wider than the case at hand; his interest was in the source and ground of war's lawfulness in general. The treatise was never published in full during Grotius' lifetime, perhaps because the court ruling in favor of the Company preempted the need to garner public support.{{citation needed|reason=any source?|date=June 2015}}

[[File:Mare Liberum, or the Free Sea, by Hugo Grotius. Preface read in Latin.webm|thumb|right|Preface to the {{lang|la|Mare Liberum}}, read in Latin with English subtitles]] In ''The Free Sea'' (''[[Mare Liberum]]'', published 1609), Grotius formulated the new principle that the sea was international territory and all [[nation]]s were free to use it for seafaring [[trade]].{{sfn|Kraska|2011|p=88}} Grotius, by claiming 'free seas' ([[freedom of the seas]]), provided suitable ideological justification for the Dutch breaking up of various trade [[monopoly|monopolies]] through its formidable naval power. [[England]], competing fiercely with the Dutch for domination of world trade, opposed this idea and claimed in [[John Selden]]'s ''[[Mare clausum]]'' ''(The Closed Sea)'', "That the Dominion of the British Sea, or That Which Incompasseth the Isle of Great Britain, is, and Ever Hath Been, a Part or Appendant of the Empire of that Island.''"''{{sfn|Selden|1652}}

It is generally assumed that Grotius first propounded the principle of [[freedom of the seas]], although all countries in the [[Indian Ocean]] and other Asian seas accepted the right of [[Freedom of navigation|unobstructed navigation]] long before Grotius wrote his ''De Jure Praedae'' (''On the Law of Spoils'') in the year of 1604. Additionally, 16th-century Spanish theologian [[Francisco de Vitoria]] had postulated the idea of freedom of the seas in a more rudimentary fashion under the principles of ''[[jus gentium]]''.{{sfn|Nussbaum|1947}} Grotius's notion of the freedom of the seas would persist until the mid-20th century, and it continues to be applied even to this day for much of the [[high seas]], though the [[United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea#Background|application of the concept and the scope of its reach is changing]].