Grotius and Empire
On Andrew Fitzmaurice ‘Sovereignty, Property and Empire 1500 – 2000’
In: GrotianaSearch for other papers by Camilla Boisen in
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This article reviews Andrew Fitzmaurice’s recent book Sovereignty, Property and Empire 1500–1800 with a critical examination of the author’s analysis of Hugo Grotius. Unlike other works of intellectual history that focus on the relationship between empire and political theory, this book offers a refreshing account of how Western political thought also provided a critique of empire. Using the law of occupation to explain the origin of property and political society, Fitzmaurice demonstrates how ‘occupation’ was used to both justify and criticise extra-European imperial expansion. His analysis of Grotius is centred on ‘occupation’, explaining that even though Grotius’s political thought supports an imperialistic thesis, there is also evidence of anti-imperialist sentiments running through his works. I argue, however, that whilst Fitzmaurice provide a sound and interesting account of the role occupation plays in explaining Grotius’s two different accounts of property in De Indis and De jure belli ac pacis, he disregards the broader philosophical implications this has for Grotius’s theory of property.
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2
Jennifer Pitts, ‘Political Theory of Empire and Imperialism’, Annual Review of Political Science, 13 (2010), 211–35, at p. 216.
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3
John T Parry, ‘What is the Grotian Tradition in International Law?’, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, 35 (2014), 300–377, at p. 304.
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12
Richard Tuck, The Rights of War and Peace: Political Thought and International Order From Grotius to Kant (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 103.
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17
See for instance Hans W. Blom, ‘Sociability and Hugo Grotius’, History of European Ideas, 41 (2015), 589–604.
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23
See Boucher, The Limits of Ethics in International Relations, pp. 127–129.
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Grotius and Empire
On Andrew Fitzmaurice ‘Sovereignty, Property and Empire 1500 – 2000’
In: GrotianaSearch for other papers by Camilla Boisen in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
This article reviews Andrew Fitzmaurice’s recent book Sovereignty, Property and Empire 1500–1800 with a critical examination of the author’s analysis of Hugo Grotius. Unlike other works of intellectual history that focus on the relationship between empire and political theory, this book offers a refreshing account of how Western political thought also provided a critique of empire. Using the law of occupation to explain the origin of property and political society, Fitzmaurice demonstrates how ‘occupation’ was used to both justify and criticise extra-European imperial expansion. His analysis of Grotius is centred on ‘occupation’, explaining that even though Grotius’s political thought supports an imperialistic thesis, there is also evidence of anti-imperialist sentiments running through his works. I argue, however, that whilst Fitzmaurice provide a sound and interesting account of the role occupation plays in explaining Grotius’s two different accounts of property in De Indis and De jure belli ac pacis, he disregards the broader philosophical implications this has for Grotius’s theory of property.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1183 | 121 | 22 |
| Full Text Views | 289 | 8 | 3 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 197 | 25 | 9 |