This volume represents a significant scholarly contribution to the study of the intellectual and historical foundations of modern international law through an examination of the work of Hugo Grotius, the Dutch jurist and philosopher widely regarded as one of the founders of the discipline. The book offers an in-depth analytical reading of the relationship between the emergence of international law and the structure of European empires during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, highlighting the ways in which legal concepts were deeply intertwined with imperial political, economic, and expansionist interests.

The book explores Grotius’s key ideas on sovereignty, freedom of the seas, just war, and the rights of peoples, demonstrating how these concepts contributed to the formation of an international legal order that claimed universality while remaining shaped by contexts of domination and colonial expansion. By addressing the ethical and legal tensions arising from the intersection of legal discourse and imperial projects, this work provides an essential framework for understanding international law as a historical and political construct rather than a neutral or purely normative system.