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Mare Liberum
Mare Liberum ('The Free Sea') is a Latin treatise by Hugo Grotius, published in 1609, arguing that the sea is international territory open to the ships of all nations. Written in defence of the Dutch East India Company's right to trade in the East Indies against the Portuguese claim to a monopoly, it became a founding text of the law of the sea. It provoked replies such as John Selden's Mare Clausum (1635).
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- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Mare Liberum. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mare-liberum
- MLA
- “Mare Liberum.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mare-liberum. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Mare Liberum.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mare-liberum.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Mare Liberum’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mare-liberum (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻