This study examines the development of natural law theories in the early stages of the Enlightenment in Germany and France. T. J. Hochstrasser investigates the influence of theories of natural law from Grotius to Kant, with a comparative analysis of important intellectual innovations in ethics and political philosophy. This book assesses the first histories of political thought, giving insights into eighteenth-century natural jurisprudence. Ambitious in range and conceptually sophisticated, it will be of great interest to scholars in history, political thought, law and philosophy.