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The escape of Hugo de Groot (1583-1645) in a book chest from Slot Loevestein in 1621 is legendary. This famous 17th-century theologian, historian, statesman, diplomat and jurist was serving a life sentence for his support of Van Oldenbarnevelt. Much less known is his famous legal treatise 'De Iure Belli et Pacis', with which he laid the foundations of modern international law.

De Groot is therefore rightly included in a series of six statues of famous historical jurists. The statues were originally part of a 'total work of art' of building, decorations and statues on the Plein, which was completed shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. This culturally and historically valuable Supreme Court building fell victim to demolition at the end of the 1980s. The sculptures were saved. However, the link that existed between sculpture and architecture was temporarily lost. The sculptures were placed on a small square on Kazernestraat near the new accommodation of the Supreme Court. When the Supreme Court moved in 2016, this was rectified. Building and sculptures reinforce each other as before.

Johan Polet immortalised De Groot in 1938. Like his colleague Krop, Polet is a sculptor of the Amsterdam School (1916-1926). Artists from this movement tried to clarify the identity of a building through their choice of motif and material. Although the link between sculpture and building became increasingly looser after the period of the Amsterdam School, Polet was aware of the architectural context in which his sculpture functioned. Polet had De Groot's left hand rest on the law book and his right hand pointed at it emphatically. In doing so, the sculptor was clearly referring to De Groot's special legal skills, and at the same time to the function of the building in front of which De Groot sat and sits, the Supreme Court.