Many years have elapsed since the original work was published, long before the invaluable decisions of Sir William Scott, Sir C. Robinson, and Sir John Nichol, and other eminent Judges in the Courts of Admiralty, and Prize and other Courts; and the last edition upon which any care was bestowed, was published in A.D. 1797; since which time, and especially during the last general war, many most important rules respecting the Law of Nations were established. The object of the present Editor has, therefore, been to collect and condense, in numerous notes, the modern rules and decisions, and to fortify the positions in the text by references to other authors of eminence, and by which he hopes that this edition will be found of more practical utility, without interfering with the text, or materially increasing its size.
In consequence, Chitty’s text is overloaded with legal citations based on the case law of the sea that emerged in the Napoleonic era. Vattel’s work had become a textbook for law students in both Britain and North America.
Some of Chitty’s notes remain useful and have on occasion been incorporated into the editorial apparatus for this edition. The present edition includes new footnotes, elucidating dates, events, works, and persons referred to by Vattel. Posthumous additions to the French edition of 1773, which were then translated in the edition of 1797, are identified as such in the new notes. Translations of Vattel’s Latin citations have come from the best modern editions, particularly from the Loeb Classical Library. For each translation, reference to the edition used can be found in the bibliography of authors cited. In cases where no translation could be found, or where the context of Vattel’s work required an amended translation, the editors undertook the translation, and this is signaled in the text by “trans. Eds.” All of the preceding new material has been added to the 1797 text as numbered notes or as double square-bracketed inserts within Vattel’s original notes.
Chitty lamented in 1833 that “he proposed to form an Index, so as to render the work more readily accessible; but, in that desire, he has been overruled by the publishers.” The present edition adds bibliographical and biographical details of authors cited in the text, following up Vattel’s own sometimes obscure references. The bibliography of authors cited includes and explains the short titles employed by Vattel in his footnotes.
Page breaks in the 1797 edition have been indicated in the body of the text by the use of angle brackets. For example, page 112 begins after <112>.
Three Essays by Vattel
The first two essays included here, Essay on the Foundation of Natural Law1 and Can Natural Law Bring Society to Perfection Without the Assistance of Political Laws?2 date from the early and formative phase of Vattel’s career and anticipate many of the themes of The Law of Nations. Both essays were originally published in the collection Le loisir phi losoph ique ou pièces diverses de philosophie, de morale et d’amusement (Geneva, 1747). The second dissertation was a response to the Academy of Dijon’s prize competition of 1742.
The two translations, both for the first time in English, are based on the texts as appended to a nineteenth-century edition of the Le droit des gens: Nouvelle édition, précédé d’un essai et d’une dissertation (de l’auteur), accompagnée des notes de Pinheiro-Ferreira et du Baron de Chambrier d’Oleires, augmente du discours sur l’étude du droit de la nature et des gens par Sir J. Mackintosh (traduction nouvelle), complèté par l’exposition des doctrines des publicistes contemporains mise au courant des progrès du droit public moderne et suivie d’une table analytique des matières, par M. P. Pradier-Fodéré (3 vols.; Paris: Saint-Denis, 1863).
The third essay, Dialogue Between the Prince of **** and His Confidant,3 was first published in Amusemens de littérature, de morale, et de politique par M. de Vattel (The Hague: Pierre Gosse Junior & Daniel Pinet libraires de S.A.S, 1765, 21–48). It is translated here in English for the first time.
The text of this essay is important because it shows Vattel to have been participating fully in the debates about economic and administrative reform that took place all over Europe at the time. The Dialogue also shows that Vattel’s theory of international law (and especially his assessment of Europe’s chances of having a workable system of international justice) can be fully understood only when seen in the light of his ideas about domestic reform.
In all three essays the original notes have been preserved as numbered notes. New material added by the volume editors is enclosed in double square brackets.
The editors would like to thank Nikolas Funke, Ken Goodwin, Tim Hochstrasser, Amanda McKeever, Norman Vance, and Stefania Tutino for extensive scholarly labors which have immeasurably improved this edition. Ian Gazeley, Julian Hoppit, Istvan Hont, Michael Sonenscher, Gabriella Silvestrini, and Brian Young deserve thanks for help on specific points of fact. Thanks are also due to Laura Goetz, Diana Francoeur, and the editorial team at Liberty Fund, who saw the manuscript through press with outstanding professionalism. Support for the research under pinning this edition was provided by the School of Humanities Research Fund at the University of Sussex, the British Academy, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, and the History Department of the University of Lausanne. the University of Lausanne. As is always the case, a debt of gratitude is As is always the case, a debt of gratitude is owed to our wives and families, and also to our colleagues in intellectual history at Sussex, Fribourg, and Lausanne. Our greatest debt, however, is to Knud Haakonssen who, master editor that he is, guided us with patience and good humor through the minefield of modern editorial practice.
Béla Kapossy
Richard Whatmore
THE LAW OF NATIONS
THE LAW OF NATIONS, OR, PRINCIPLES OF THE LAW OF NATURE,
Applied to the Conduct and Affairs
FROM THE FRENCH OF MONSIEUR DE VATTEL.
Nihil est enim illi principi Deo qui omnem hunc mundum regit, quod quidem in terris fiat, acceptius, quam concilia coetusque hominum jure sociati, quae civitates, appellantur.1
CICERO, Som. Scip.2
A NEW EDITION,
Revised, corrected, and enriched with many valuable Notes never before translated into English.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR G.G. AND J. ROBINSON, PATERNOSTER-ROW.
1797.
ADVERTISEMENT
In undertaking this new edition of Monsieur De Vattel’s treatise, it was not my intention to give what might strictly be called a new translation. To add the author’s valuable notes from the posthumous edition printed at Neuchatel in 1773,—to correct some errors I had observed in the former version,—and occasionally to amend the language where doubtful or obscure,—were the utmost limits of my original plan. As I proceeded, however, my alterations became more numerous: but whether they will be acknowledged as amendments, it must rest with the reader to determine. Even if his decision should be more favourable than I have any reason to expect, I lay no claim to praise for my humble efforts, but shall