Hugo Grotius

On April 10, 1583, Dutch writer and philosopher Ugo Grotius was born. The founder of modern international law in the world. He was also one of the founders of the modern eclectic law school.

Grotius was born during the Dutch Revolution, and his father was a well-known humanist scholar at Leiden University. Grotius was the eldest son of the family. His excellent parenting and personal genius made him win the title of "child prodigy" early on. Grotius entered university at the age of 14, went to France with the Dutch ambassador at the age of 16, served as editor-in-chief of the official "History of the Battle of Jose" at the age of 20, and served as the prosecutor of the Netherlands and other provinces at the age of 25. All this makes people think Grotius is a genius. However, Grotius's success is not limited to this. His books "The Law of War and Peace","The Law of Capture" and "On Freedom of the Sea" comprehensively and systematically discuss the basic principles of modern international law based on natural law. He became the founder of modern international law and was praised by the world as the "ancestor of international law." Among them, Grotius's two major contributions cannot be forgotten: 1. He truly elaborated on the concept of international law for the first time;2. He proposed the classic theory of freedom of the high seas. In addition, he was also a famous theologian, and "The Truth of Christian Faith" elaborated on his pious religious beliefs. Grotius also has a large number of plays on political science and theology that have been circulated around the world.

In the theory of international law, Grotius is considered to be a faction between the positivist school of law and the natural school of law. Grotius believes that the law of nations is the law that governs the communication between countries, namely international law. International law is a type of statutory law. It is a rule agreed to adopt and formulate by all countries or a majority of countries, and analyzes the causes of war from the perspective of international law.

Of course, Grotius's freedom on the high seas was his classic theory. In his book "Liberty at Sea" Grotius attacked Portugal's monopoly on routes and trade in the Eastern Indian Ocean Islands; he believed that "the ocean is inexhaustible, inexhaustible, and unoccupied; it should be open to all countries and all peoples for their free use. "To this day, Grotius's" freedom of the high seas "has been accepted by people around the world as a principle of international law and has positive significance for people and economic exchanges around the world.

As you may know, the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Sea stipulates six aspects of freedoms, which also stems from the spirit of "freedom of the high seas" because it stipulates that these freedoms apply to both coastal and landlocked States. Of course, it is more progressive than Grotius. It takes into account various social public interests and places certain restrictions on freedom. Here, we introduce these six types of "freedom of the high seas" to you: first, freedom of navigation; second, freedom of overflight; and third, freedom of laying submarine cables and pipelines (Subject to the restrictions stipulated in the Continental Shelf Clauses); 4. Freedom to build artificial islands and other facilities allowed by international law (subject to the restrictions stipulated in the Continental Shelf Clauses); 5. Freedom of fishing (subject to the restrictions stipulated in the Conservation and Management of High Seas Living Resources); 6. Freedom of scientific research, subject to compliance with the two parts of the Convention on the Continental Shelf and Marine Scientific Research. Now when you travel on the sea, you will definitely think of Grotius, because he allowed us to sail freely on the sea.