“…The successive hegemonic threats of the Spanish and French monarchies against small states, in particular Vattel's own Neuchatel, could not be effectively contained with perpetual peace proposals. 16 The sovereign right of judgment, together with the mechanism of power balancing, were better suited to avert the moral and political evils of political encroachment, domination, and "servitude and enslavement" that would result from a raising hegemon's "injustice, rapacity, pride, ambition, or imperious thirst of rule" (III.44). 17 To avoid this moral and political bad, nations, particularly small ones, must have the legal power to decide where to seek protection and how to incline the international balance of power (III.49-50).…”