1744day.year
Jean Barbeyrac
(1674 - 1744)
French scholar and jurist
French scholar and jurist
French jurist and translator influential in spreading natural law theories across 18th-century Europe.
Born in 1674 in Nîmes to a Protestant family, Barbeyrac fled religious persecution and settled in Britain.
He translated key works of Hugo Grotius and Samuel Pufendorf, making natural law accessible to an English audience.
Barbeyrac authored original treatises on international law, arguing for individual rights and government by consent.
His writings influenced Enlightenment thinkers such as Montesquieu and Voltaire.
He died in 1744, remembered for bridging continental legal philosophy with British jurisprudence.
1744
Jean Barbeyrac