Public Authority, Ius Puniendi and the Common Good: Exploring International Criminal Law from a Grotian Perspective

Abstract The present contribution examines the idea of public authority, that is, an authority exercised for the common good, emerging from Grotius’s foundational work, De iure belli ac pacis. In focusing on the right to punish in particular, it explores the idea of public authority at the intersection between sovereignty and State/governmental competences in the field of international criminal law. In this ambit, the commission of international crimes is regarded as an obstacle to sociability and their repression as a right of the international community to see those crimes punished [see e.g. the reference to pirates as hostes humani generis ]. Against the background of the blurring public/private divide, the paper argues that Grotius’s intimations of public authority deploy great significance for current governance challenges of community interests, at the crossroad between public authority and private power. As such, this paper intends to contribute to the debate on Grotius’s rights-centred approach to international law at the expense of a common good, though offering a different understanding of the common good in Grotius’s legal thought and its legacy in current international law discourse.