•  13
    This article investigates the formal purpose of declaring wars for Hugo Grotius. Grotius was adamant that states always use justification in a duplicitous way to conceal their real motivation to go to war. As such, the purpose of declaration is not to assert the just cause of war. Rather, what any public declaration does, is provide recognition that confers legal validation to the disputing parties. The legal rules of war were described by the law of nations and occasionally permitted states to …Read more
  •  26
    The Limits of Ethics in International Relations: Natural Law, Natural Rights and Human Rights in Transition
    Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory 59 (133): 98-101. 2012.
  •  12
    Grotius and Empire
    Grotiana 36 (1): 28-39. 2015.
    _ Source: _Volume 36, Issue 1, pp 28 - 39 This article reviews Andrew Fitzmaurice’s recent book _Sovereignty, Property and Empire 1500–1800_ with a critical examination of the author’s analysis of Hugo Grotius. Unlike other works of intellectual history that focus on the relationship between empire and political theory, this book offers a refreshing account of how Western political thought also provided a critique of empire. Using the law of occupation to explain the origin of property and polit…Read more
  •  1
    A Fair Share (edited book)
    with Matt Murray
    Routledge. forthcoming.
  •  8
    Apartheid of Thought
    with Matthew C. Murray
    Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory 64 (150). 2017.
  •  16
    This paper argues that the moral legitimating reasoning of terra nullius assumed an under-recognised, different guise in the later years of colonial justification in the form of trusteeship. The idea of terra nullius has a central place in the political thought of thinkers such as Grotius and Locke. Although terra nullius, consolidated in European colonial thought in the early modern period, differed conceptually from the doctrine of trusteeship as the colonial legitimation for Africa, both inst…Read more
  •  8
    Who has what and why in our societies is a pressing issue that has prompted explanation and exposition by philosophers, politicians and jurists for as long as societies and intellectuals have existed. It is a primary issue for a society to tackle this and these answers have been diverse. This collection of essays approaches some of these questions and answers to shed light on neglected approaches to issues of distribution and how these issues have been dealt with historically, socially, conceptu…Read more