This article argues that Grotius has a modern theory of the state that can take its place alongside Bodin and Hobbes as one of the ways in which early modern civil philosophy sought to solve the problem of the authority and validity of political order. This is interesting because Grotius’s account of the state draws a picture of the relationship between political and legal ordering, and history, in which the interrelationship of the political and the legal allows a range of adaptive and adaptable state-forms. State authority is made possible and accountable under a system of natural legal right, even as its constitution is a historical achievement that should not readily be disturbed and in which a large range of freedom and unfreedom is lawful and should be accepted. I argue that, understood in this way, the State Theory of Grotius is not only modern, but provides in its methods and insights, a potential answer to one of the key conceptual dead ends of modern theories of sovereignty: the idea that sovereign power must be perpetually concentrated in one organ or entity if it is to retain what makes it sovereign. Along the way, I highlight the significance of state theory for contemporary discussions of international, transnational and global law.

中文翻译：

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格罗蒂乌斯的国家理论

本文认为，格罗蒂乌斯拥有一种现代的国家理论，可以与博丁和霍布斯一起取代国家，这是早期现代民间哲学试图解决政治秩序的权威性和有效性问题的方式之一。这很有趣，因为格罗蒂乌斯（Grotius）对国家的描述描绘了政治和法律秩序与历史之间的关系，其中政治与法律之间的相互关系允许一系列适应性和适应性的国家形式。即使国家的宪法是一项历史成就，也不应轻易受到干扰，而且在其中大范围的自由和非自由是合法的，应予以接受，但根据自然的法律权利制度，国家权威才有可能成为可能并承担责任。我认为，以这种方式理解，格罗蒂乌斯国家理论不仅是现代的，而且在其方法和见解中提供了对现代主权理论的关键概念死胡同之一的潜在答案：主权主权必须永久地集中在一个机构或实体中的思想是保留使其成为主权的原因。在此过程中，我强调了国家理论对于当代国际，跨国和全球法律讨论的重要性。