In the United States’ Capitol, twenty-three marble relief
portraits of historical figures central to the principles of
American law oversee the House Chamber. These portraits include
Moses, Pope Gregory IX, Sir William Blackstone, and Hugo
Grotius. In truth, Grotius’s jurisprudence was considered
authoritative by the American Founders. A diplomat, lawyer,
magistrate, scholar, and teacher, Grotius was born in Delft,
Holland, on April 10, 1583. In 1625, the excesses of the Thirty
Years’ War compelled Grotius, a lifelong opponent of tyranny, to
write his magnum opus, The Law of War and Peace, which is an
excellent example of the many treatises on natural law written
by jurists and theologians in western Europe between the
sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. For this reason, Grotius is
considered the father of international law. The concept of man’s
natural rationality and sociability is central to Grotius’s
understanding of natural law. What distinguishes man from the
beasts is reason, which perceives that justi