Three Books on the Law of War

…jure belli libri tres (1598; Three Books on the Law of War), which contained a comprehensive discussion of the laws of war and treaties. Gentili’s work initiated a transformation of the law of nature from a theological concept to a concept of secular philosophy founded on reason. The Dutch jurist…

…jure belli libri tres (Three Books on the Law of War). In his view, international law should comprise the actual practices of civilized nations, tempered by moral (but not specifically religious) considerations. Although he rejected the authority of the church, he used the reasoning of the canon law as…

…edition (1877) of Alberico Gentili’s De jure belli (“On the Law of War”) demonstrated that Hugo Grotius, the noted 17th-century Dutch authority on international law, owed many of his ideas to Gentili, an Italian teacher of civil law at Oxford late in the 16th century. Holland drafted the Admiralty Manual…