''The Law of Nations: Or, Principles of the Law of Nature Applied to the Conduct and Affairs of Nations and Sovereigns''french: Le Droit des gens : Principes de la loi naturelle, appliqués à la conduite et aux affaires des Nations et des Souverains is a legal treatise on

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

Emerich de Vattel Emer (Emmerich) de Vattel ( 25 April 171428 December 1767) was an international lawyer. He was born in Couvet in the Principality of Neuchâtel (now a canton part of Switzerland but part of Prussia at the time) in 1714 and died in 1767. He was l ...

, published in 1758.

Summary

''The Law of Nations'' has been said to have modernized the entire practice of

Influence

Centuries after his death it was found that United States President

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

had a number of overdue library books dating back over 221 years. One of them was ''The Law of Nations''. Swiss editor Charles W.F. Dumas sent

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

three copies of the book in 1775. Franklin received them May 18, June 30, and July 8 by two couriers: Alexandre Pochard (Dumas' friend and later companion to

Fleury Mesplet Fleury Mesplet (January 10, 1734 – January 24, 1794) was a French-born Canadian printer best known for founding the ''Montreal Gazette'', Quebec's oldest daily newspaper, in 1778.Galarneau, Claude.Mesplet, Fleury, in ''Dictionary of Canadian ...

) and a man named Vaillant. Franklin kept one copy for himself, depositing the second in "our own public library here" (the

Library Company of Philadelphia The Library Company of Philadelphia (LCP) is a non-profit organization based in Philadelphia. Founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin as a library, the Library Company of Philadelphia has accumulated one of the most significant collections of hist ...

which Franklin founded in 1731) and sending the third to the " college of Massachusetts Bay" (Franklin used the original name from 1636, not acknowledging the 1639 rename to

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

in honor of John Harvard). In December 1775, Franklin thanked Dumas: Franklin also said that this book by Vattel, "has been continually in the hands of the members of our Congress now sitting". It provides at least a partial legal basis for modern conscription in the United States. In the ''

Selective Draft Law Cases ''Arver v. United States'', 245 U.S. 366 (1918), also known as the ''Selective Draft Law Cases'', was a United States Supreme Court decision which upheld the Selective Service Act of 1917, and more generally, upheld conscription in the United Sta ...

'' (1918), upholding the

Selective Service Act of 1917 The Selective Service Act of 1917 or Selective Draft Act () authorized the United States federal government to raise a national army for service in World War I through conscription. It was envisioned in December 1916 and brought to President ...

, the court stated:

Neutrality

The practice of

mercantilist Mercantilism is an economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy. It promotes imperialism, colonialism, tariffs and subsidies on traded goods to achieve that goal. The policy aims to reduce ...

economies granting their own ships legal privileges when trading with their colonies, and sometimes restricting trade entirely, created a whole host of issues in the 18th century. Neutral trade or

neutral rights Neutral or neutrality may refer to: Mathematics and natural science Biology * Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity Chemistry and physics * Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction in ...

became a matter of controversy in the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

in which neutral rights were supported by France and opposed by Britain. Vattel formulated a differing approach to the

Rule of 1756 The Rule of 1756 or Rule of the War of 1756 was a policy of the Kingdom of Great Britain, and later the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that was promulgated during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). It ruled that Britain would not trade ...

that had emerged from the

prize court A prize court is a court (or even a single individual, such as an ambassador or consul) authorized to consider whether prizes have been lawfully captured, typically whether a ship has been lawfully captured or seized in time of war or under the t ...

s in Britain. With the Rule of 1756 the British had sought to prevent trade by neutral vessels between colonies and mother countries. Practically speaking, this would have stopped American vessels from trading between the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Vattel neither fully embraced the British approach distinguishing trade with the enemy (neutral) and trade for the enemy (deemed contraband), nor did he fully subscribe to French the "

free ships, free goods Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything * Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism * Emancipate, to procure ...

" principle. Rather, in the ''Law of Nations'' Vattel proposed only some limited restrictions on trade, requiring that states trade with both belligerents to keep their neutral status, but rejected any obligation for neutral states to cease trade. Additionally, neutral nations were encouraged to accept that certain types of goods might be justifiably seized by belligerents, and these seizures should not be construed as acts of war. In the United States, Vattel was one of the treatise writers that influenced

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...

's concept of the

freedom of the seas Freedom of the seas ( la, mare liberum, lit. "free sea") is a principle in the law of the sea. It stresses freedom to navigate the oceans. It also disapproves of war fought in water. The freedom is to be breached only in a necessary inter ...

in defense of the principle "free ships make free goods" (in other words, if the ships were neutral, than the goods on board were deemed neutral). In the longest work Madison ever wrote, he relied heavily upon Vattel to support his argument that the Rule of 1756 had no legal basis. According to James Madison, Vattel was "justly charged with failing too much in the merit of a careful discrimination; and sometimes with delivering maxims, which he either could not reconcile, or does not take pains to explain." Regarding the chapter on neutrality (Book III, Chapter VII of ''The Law of Nations''), Madison says Vattel could have been "more exact in his definitions and more lucid in the order of his ideas".

English editions

Vattel's ''Law of Nations'' was translated into English in 1760, based on the French original of 1758. A Dublin translation does not include notes from the original nor posthumous notes added to the 1773 French edition. Several other English editions were based on the edition of 1760. However, an English edition from 1793 includes Vattel's later thoughts, as did the London 1797 edition. The 1797 edition has a detailed table of contents and margin titles for subsections.

Notes

Footnotes

External links

''The Law of Nations''
kingdom-hawaii.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Law of Nations, The 1758 books International law literature Conscription in the United States International law Law books 1758 in law