Serving Danish Foreign Policy: Andreas Hojer’s De eo quod iure belli licet in minores (1735)

Abstract

Andreas Hojer (1690– 1739) is arguably one of the most fascinating but understudied figures in the early enlightenment in Denmark. Hailing from SchleswigHolstein, Hojer studied in Halle under Christian Thomasius (1655– 1728), where he became fascinated with the new teachings on natural law and the law of nations. His first published works were an academic exercise on the (non)prohibition of incestuous marriage by divine law, the De nuptiis propinquorum iure divino non prohibitis [...] diagramma, and a short history of Denmark.1 Both works led him into polemics and rivalry with Ludvig Holberg (1684– 1754), who is now widely considered the (only) major figure of the early Danish enlightenment. Having successfully weathered a storm over his work on marriage, Hojer was employed in a string of positions, including royal historiographer and Justitsråd, before being appointed the first ex officio professor of the law of nature and nations at Copenhagen University in 1734.2 No substantive account of his natural law theorizing and its political and intellectual significance has thus far been attempted. An informative and detailed biography of Hojer was published in 1961, and Hojer is mentioned in the standard histories of jurisprudence in Denmark.3 But in neither case is there any detailed discussion of his teachings on natural law.4 This is perhaps