Abstract

The fields of international relations and international law have experienced a resurgence of interest in Hugo Grotius’s doctrines of just war theory and natural law, as scholars have become increasingly aware that the positivist traditions of international law do not sufficiently address such issues as humanitarian interventions or anticipatory self-defense. But even though scholars often cite Grotian natural law as a supplement to or replacement of positivist law, they have seldom examined the theoretical underpinnings of Grotius’s conceptions of natural law itself. This paper analyzes difficulties with Grotius’s natural law doctrines, which especially come to light when compared with the teachings on justice, human sociality, and international relations in Plato’s Republic