I do not profess, upon the present occasion, to enter into any minute examination of the mode in which Grotius executed his task. The work consists of three books. To use his own language, in the first book he has examined the general question whether any war is just; next, in order to distinguish between public and private war, he has explained the nature of sovereignty, what peoples, what kings, have it in full, what in part, what with a right of alienation, what otherwise; and afterwards he has spoken of the duty of subjects to their sovereigns.
In the second book, he undertakes to explain all the causes from which war may arise, and he examines what things are in common, what are property, what are the rights of persons over persons, what obligation arises from dominion, what is the rule of royal succession, what rights are obtained by covenant or contract, what is the force and interpretation of treaties and alliances, what of oaths public and private, what compensation is due for damage done, what is the sacred character of ambassadors, what the right of burying the dead, what the nature of punishments.
In the third book, he discusses in the first place what is lawful in war, and, after making a distinction between those acts which may be done with impunity, or may even, in dealing with foreigners, be defended as consistent with right, and those acts which are really free from fault, he descends to the different kinds of peace, and to the variety of conventions in war. (Prolegomena, §§ 34, 35, 36.)
Such is the account of his work, which Grotius gives in the Prolegomena. To those who wish to become more intimately acquainted with the details of his system, I would suggest the perusal of the
