De jure belli ac pacis

De iure belli ac pacis (English: On the Law of War and Peace) is a 1625 book written by Hugo Grotius on the legal status of war that is regarded as a foundational work in international law.

[1][2][3][4] The work takes up Alberico Gentili's De jure belli of 1598,[5] as demonstrated by Thomas Erskine Holland.

[8] According to Pieter Geyl: It is an attempt by a theologically and classically educated jurist to base upon law order and security in the community of states as well as in the national society in which he had grown up.

In the rather naïve rationalism, the belief in reason as the lord of life, is revealed the spiritual son of Erasmus.

[9]In particular, this work is remembered for the sentence: Et haec quidem quae iam diximus, locum aliquem haberent etiamsi daremus, quod sine summo scelere dari nequit, non esse Deum, aut non curari ab eo negotia humana.