THE DYNAMICS OF DUTIES AND FORMS OF JUSTICE IN THE POLITICAL MODEL OF THE YOUNG GROZIO

This paper moves from the
examination of the different forms of law identified
by Hugo Grotius in his De jure praedae
(1604-08), in order to focus on the types of
justice and the dynamics of duties, which operate
within the Respublica here described. As
is known, in this Grotian youthful work the
supreme will of God represents the primary juridical
source from which the peculiar classification
of forms of law is outlined. This
juridical voluntaristic structure acts as a precondition
for the anthropological and political
vision of the young Dutch thinker. Moreover,
Grotius believes that justice is already manifested
in the pre-political state as a social
virtue involving the "intermediate" position between
someone"s unfairly getting "less" than is
deserved and someone"s unfairly getting
‘more" at another"s expense. Thus, the treatise
already contains a sketch of the Grotian doctrine
of the suum, which will find further developments
in De jure belli ac pacis. In
particular, the problem of the limit of one"s
rights towards the others leads Grotius to face
the reasons of the Respublica"s birth. He assert
that the Respublica, having as its purpose the
preservation of human society, constitutes the
place of the maximum expression of social
virtue, which aims at attributing to each one
what belongs to him, both in its form of justitia
assignatrix and justitia compensatrix. Furthermore,
with the entry into civil society the personal
interest in common security prevails
over everyone"s selfish impulse. On such
basis, both the relationship between citizens
and the political relationship between the ruler
and the ruled is conceived as founded on mutual
duties.