LEGAL UNIVERSALISM AND COLONIAL LEGITIMACY: GROTIUS, PUFENDORF, WOLFF, AND DE VATTEL IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

This article critically examines the intellectual contributions of Hugo Grotius, Samuel Pufendorf, Christian Wolff, and Emmerich de Vattel to the foundations of modern international law, focusing on how their legal philosophies reconciled universalist aspirations with Eurocentric legal and colonial structures. While traditionally celebrated for promoting a universal legal order grounded in natural law, these post-Grotian thinkers were also instrumental in constructing legal doctrines that legitimized European colonial expansion. Building on Grotius’s legacy, Pufendorf, Wolff, and de Vattel developed normative frameworks that institutionalized emerging notions of state sovereignty and early legal positivism. Although these frameworks were couched in claims of universality and equality, they often reproduced colonial hierarchies by marginalizing non-European peoples and validating territorial conquest, trade monopolies, and differential sovereignty. This article situates these thinkers within their historical context and challenges prevailing interpretations that treat them solely as neutral philosophers or legal theorists of their time. By adopting a comparative approach informed by critical legal studies, the article interrogates the extent to which these pivotal figures in international law actively shaped and sustained a Eurocentric world order under the guise of universal legal norms. In doing so, it contributes to broader debates on the colonial legacy embedded within the foundational narratives of international legal thought and calls for the reimagining of a more inclusive and equitable international legal framework.