The freedom of the seas -- meaning both the oceans of the world and coastal waters -- has been among the most contentious issues in international law for the past four hundred years. The most influential argument in favour of freedom of navigation, trade, and fishing was that put forth by the Dutch theorist Hugo Grotius in his 1609 'Mare Liberum'. The Free Sea was originally published in order to buttress Dutch claims of access to the lucrative markets of the East Indies. It had been composed as the twelfth chapter of a larger work, De Jure Praedae ('On the Law of Prize and Booty'), which...

A contribution to the debate begun by Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France". "A Discourse on the Law of Nature and Nations" was the introduction to a popular course of public lectures at Lincoln's Inn in 1799 and 1800.

Building on David Hume, Adam Smith, and their respective natural histories of man, the author developed an account of the nature of authority in society by analysing changes in subsistence, agriculture, arts, and manufacture. He provides a historical analysis of the ways in which progressive economic change transforms the nature of authority.

Hutcheson's "Institutio" was written as a textbook for university students and it therefore covers a curriculum which has an institutional background in his own university, Glasgow. This title is a parallel edition of the English and Latin versions of a book designed by Hutcheson for use in the classroom.