The Legacy of Vattel’s Droit des gens: Contexts, Concepts, Reception, Translation and Diffusion

Abstract

Emer de Vattel's Le Droit des gens, ou principes de la loi naturelle appliqués à la conduite et aux affaires des nations et des souverains was first published in 1758, following a longish gestation period (1753-1757). The book was preceded by a series of short publications, notably essays on philosophical, moral, legal and literary subjects, published by Vattel since the late 1740s. In the immediate aftermath of its appearance at the height of the Seven Years' War, the Droit des gens became the object of academic and political discussion and of quick reprints, including pirate

Natural Law and the Law of Nations in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Italy

“…The history of the teaching of modern natural law at the University of Pisa1 formally started in 1738, during the rule of the new Grand Duke Francis Stephen Habsburg-Lorraine, with the reinstatement in the 'collegio dei giureconsulti' of the 'jus publicum' chair.2 Only then, while reorganizing the teaching plan, was the chair equated with a chair of 'diritto della natura e delle genti' (law of nature and nations), and lessons on this subject began to appear in printed schedules. 3 However, on the basis of what happened at the universities in the Germanic area,4 and the explicit reference in the acts establishing this second chair of public law,5 the history of the teaching of modern natural law has been conventionally considered as starting with the institution of the first chair of 'jus publicum' , in 1726.6 The first chair of public law in Italy was indeed founded at the time of the government of the last Medici Grand Duke, Gian Gastone, during the dynastic crisis of the reigning family and the related international dispute between the Grand Duchy and the Holy Roman Empire: a bellum diplomaticum that, throughout the first decades of the eighteenth century, engaged the Tuscan ruling class and its jurists in defending the autonomy and independence of the Tuscan 'small state' against imperial expansion .7 However, the absence of the contents of the lectures given by the first teacher of the course (the abbot jurist Pompeo Neri, in the chair from 1727/1728 to 1728/1729) has compelled scholars to undertake an indirect institutional reconstruction, focusing at best on the bellum litterarium regarding the origin of the mythical Littera Pisana/Florentina of the Digest during the late 1720s .8 Nevertheless, the presence of numerous primary sources makes it possible to reinterpret the establishment of the first public law chair as a terminus ad quem of an earlier process. Indeed, a process of gradual introduction and use of modern natural law by Pisan academics, from the end of the seventeenth century, is demonstrated not only by funeral orations dedicated to the main law professors (often the only sources used by historians for their accounts), but also by many neglected sources, such as library catalogues, judicial decisions and legal consultations, as well as government booklets.…”

“…An important signal was sent out when Pufendorf's 1672 De iure naturae et gentium received its first Italian translation. 3 The translator was Giambattista Almici (1717-1793), a lawyer from Brescia, a wealthy town in the subalpine belt that was subject to the Republic of Venice.4 The first two volumes appeared in Venice in 1757, and only in 1759 was the work completed -four volumes in all, the translation based on Jean Barbeyrac's French edition, possibly the second one (1712) but more probably the later ones (1732, 1740, 1750).5 It should be underlined that this is a selective translation: in many passages, Pufendorf's text undergoes major reworking and 'corrections' , as Almici calls them. And Almici follows Barbeyrac's notes only in part, to leave plenty of room for his own reasoning.…”

“…If anything, we might see that decade as a turning point within a more complex and wider framework which cannot be reduced to just the one issue, the struggle between Protestant and Catholic natural law. 3 Certainly, the transition from the figure of Benedict XIV (1740, 2 For an account of the early end of natural law see Norberto Bobbio, Thomas Hobbes and the Natural Law Tradition, trans. Daniela Gobetti (Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 1993).…”

“…Also, on nationality as a process towards perfection: Taparelli, Della nazionalità, 14. 51 On the features of Taparelli's 'realist social science' , see ' Introduction' ,in Behr,Social Justice and Subsidiarity,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Taparelli, Saggio teoretico, vol. 2, 5: 'ed io non amo fondar sopra una finzione quanto vi ha di più sacro ed importante nel commercio fra gli uomini ' .…”

Contexts of Early Modern German Legal Imagination: On Transformations of German Natural Law – Governing the State-Machine

“…Namely, his success was based not only on his writings as a diplomat and natural lawyer but on the way he was able to discuss the improvement of small states and analyse the rising commercial rivalry within the context of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). 22 Consequently, Vattel's thought was particularly attractive for small and even more so for new states. This viewpoint offers a further explanation of his success in the British American colonies.…”