Kan et privat firma føre en retfærdig krig? - Hugo Grotius og det Hollandske Østasiatiske Kompagni

Hugo Grotius wrote some of his earlier works—the De jure praedae and the Mare Liberum— on direct commission from the United Dutch East India Company (VOC) that sought to legitimize the attack on the Portuguese carrack Sta. Catarina and their continued (violent) expansion to the markets of Southeast-Asia. In the process, Grotius establishes the company as a distinct actor who can wage a just war in a state of nature, and as a subject of its home state. In this article, it is shown how Grotius thoughts on just war, sovereignty, natural law and property were developed while defending both the Dutch right to free trade and the right of United Netherland to wage a just war against their oppressor, the King of Spain and Portugal. But what was stated as the right of all to free trade and to the freedom of the seas also became a powerful argument for the continued violent commercial expansion of the Dutch and the Europeans.