Mare liberum: Hugo Grocio, entre la defensa del colonialismo y los derechos de otros

Abstract

Hugo Grotius’ reasoning in Mare liberum in defence of the freedom of the seas and particularly of the natural right to trade, so favourable as both of them were to Dutch merchant interests, has been understood by some authors as a plain legitimazation of the European imperialist expansion of his age. Drawing from his through analysis of Grotius’oeuvre for a critical edition of De iure belli ac pacis, the autor confronts this opinion and argues that the natural right of self-preservation —rooted in Spanish authors belonging to the school of the Second Scholastic— reached non-Europeans as well. Everyone was entitled to move elsewhere looking for either refuge or a better living. As a corolary, he fi nds a new interest in Grotius’ ideas for our current concerns, namely the inmigration experienced by our societies.