This article expounds the role played by Hugo Grotius in marginalizing positive duties for the protection of vulnerable people beyond the sovereign state. In the sixteenth century, theorists writing within a range of traditions had posited solemn and demanding duties to assist and rescue vulnerable subjects of other rulers from tyranny and persecution. In the early seventeenth century, Grotius explicitly subordinated such duties to the duty to seek the preservation and advantage of one’s own state. He claimed that, while the care of the vulnerable subjects of others was praiseworthy, it was not obligatory. No state was bound to accept trouble or inconvenience for the sake of vulnerable outsiders. Grotius turns out to be less of an exemplar for present day notions of the Responsibility to Protect and other international duties of human protection than he is often said to be.

本文阐述了雨果·格罗蒂乌斯（Hugo Grotius）在边缘化保护主权国家以外的弱势群体的积极职责方面所发挥的作用。在十六世纪，理论家在一系列传统中写作，提出了庄严而苛刻的职责，以协助和拯救其他统治者的脆弱主体免受暴政和迫害。在十七世纪初期，格罗蒂乌斯（Grotius）明确将这种职责从属于寻求维护自己国家的优势的职责。他声称，尽管对其他弱势群体的照顾是值得称赞的，但这不是必须的。任何国家都不会为了脆弱的局外人而接受麻烦或不便。