Emmerich de vattel biography of christopher

Emer de Vattel

Diplomat and Jurist (born )

Emmerich de Vattel (French pronunciation:[vatɛl] 25 April &#;&#; 28 December ) was a philosopher, diplomat, and jurist.

Vattel's work profoundly influenced the development of international law.[2][3] He is most famous for his work The Law of Nations.

This work was his claim to fame and won him enough prestige to be appointed as a councilor to the court of Frederick Augustus II of Saxony.

Emmerich de Vattel was the author of The Law of Nations He understood the law of essence as accessible by human reason, according to which both individuals and political societies are capable of understanding their rights and obligations. Professor of History and Charles O. Lee and Louise K.

Vattel combined naturalist legal reasoning and positivist legal reasoning.[2]

Early life and career

The son of a Protestant minister, Vattel was born at Couvet, Neuchâtel, on the 25th of April [3] He studied classics and philosophy at Basel and Geneva.[3] During his early years his favorite pursuit was philosophy and, having carefully studied the works of Leibniz and Christian Wolff, he published in a defence of Leibniz's system against Jean-Pierre de Crousaz.

In the same year Vattel repaired to Berlin in the hope of obtaining some public employment from Frederick II, but was disappointed in his expectation. Two years later he proceeded to Dresden, where he experienced a very favourable reception from Count Brühl, the minister of Saxony.

In he obtained from the elector, Augustus III, the title of councilor of embassy, accompanied with a pension, and was sent to Bern in the capacity of the elector's minister. His diplomatic functions did not occupy his whole time, and much of his leisure was devoted to literature and jurisprudence.[4]

The Law of Nations

Main article: The Law of Nations

Vattel's seminal work was largely influenced by a book titled Jus Gentium Methodo Scientifica Pertractum (The Law of Nations According to the Scientific Method) by Christian Wolff.

Vattel's work began, in fact, by translating Wolff's sms from Latin, and adding his own thoughts. Vattel's work was also heavily influenced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Hugo Grotius. Focused largely on the rights and obligations of citizens and states, Vattel's work also had ramifications for Just War Theory as it outlined international diplomacy as we now know it.[5]

Vattel elucidated the "Golden Rule of Sovereigns":

One cannot complain when he is treated as he treats others.[6]

English editions

Vattel's Law of Nations was first translated into English in , based on the French original of A Dublin translation of does not include notes from the imaginative nor posthumous notes added to the French edition.

Several other English editions were based on the edition of However, an English edition from includes Vattel's later thoughts, as did the London edition. The edition has a detailed table of contents and margin titles for subsections.[7]

Benjamin Franklin

Charles W.F.

Dumas sent Benjamin Franklin three original French copies of de Vattel's Le droit des gens (The Law of Nations). Franklin presented one duplicate to the Library Company of Philadelphia. On December 9, , Franklin thanked Dumas: [8]

It came to us in good season, when the circumstances of a rising State make it necessary to frequently consult the Commandment of Nations.

Franklin also said that this book by Vattel, "has been continually in the hands of the members of our Congress now sitting".[9][10]

George Washington

Two notable copies of The Law of Nations owned by the Recent York Society Library have been associated with US PresidentGeorge Washington.

One copy had been borrowed by Washington on 8 October , along with a replicate of Vol. 12 of the Commons Debates, containing transcripts from Great Britain's House of Commons. When the staff of the Washington museum at Mount Vernon heard about the overdue books, they were unable to locate them, but purchased a second copy of the de Vattel work for US$12, This exact copy was ceremoniously "returned" years late on 20 May The library waived the unpaid late-fees.[11]

Other works

Vattel also published works other than his magnum opus.

He worked so intensely that his health broke down, and a return to Dresden in did not improve him. His last work, Questions de droit naturel, ou Observations sur le traité du droit de la world, par Wolff ("Questions of spontaneous rights") was published in and concerned Wolff's natural law philosophy.[12] He died in during a visit to Neuchâtel.

Influence

Vattel was a highly influential international lawyer.[3] Vattel was one of a number of 18th century European scholars who wrote on international regulation and were "well known in America" at the time, including Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, Cornelius van Bynkershoek, Hugo Grotius, Samuel von Pufendorf, Thomas Rutherforth, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Christian Wolff.

The Law of Nations has been described as "unrivaled among such treatises in its influence on the American founders".[13][14]

Vattel is also cited extensively in Lysander Spooner's The Unconstitutionality Of Slavery and appears to be a key Enlightenment thinker in Spooner's thought.

US Department of Defense Law of War Manual

In the United States Department of Defense published its Rule of War Manual. Vattel is cited after Hugo Grotius and before Francis Lieber and Hersch Lauterpacht as a subsidiary means and an authority in determining the rules of law of war.[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ abOrakhelashvili, Alexander ().

    Copyright: The copyright to this edition, in both print and electronic forms, is held by Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Facts section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit. It was in great measure thanks to this work that the practical and theoretical influence of innate jurisprudence was extended down through the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras.

    Akehurst's Modern Introduction to International Law. Routledge. pp.&#;3–4. doi/ ISBN&#;. S2CID&#;

  2. ^ abcdFenwick, Charles G.

    (). "The Authority of Vattel". American Political Science Review. 7 (3): – doi/ ISSN&#; JSTOR&#; S2CID&#;

  3. ^&#;One or more of the preceding sentences&#;incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:&#;Chisholm, Hugh, ed.

    (). "Vattel, Emeric de". Encyclopædia Britannica.

    Vattel was the first to have described the law of nations as a set of rules governing the conduct of sovereign States both in times of harmony and in times of war. In other words, he was the man who defined the paradigm of international law that was to hold sway over the following two centuries.

    Vol.&#;27 (11th&#;ed.). Cambridge University Press. p.&#;

  4. ^Ignatieff, Michael (17 February ). "Barbarians at the Gates". The Modern York Times. Retrieved 4 May
  5. ^Emer de Vattel (). Le droit des gens ou principes de la loi naturelle Appliqués à la conduite et aux affaires des Nations et des Souverains par M.

    de Vattel.

    Emerich de Vattel, the Swiss-born statesman and theorist of limited government, wrote his Law of Nations as an attempt to explain international law on the basis of natural rights. He argued that men compacted to form sovereign states, and the state ordained a constitution dominant to any prince or legislature. Vattel reasoned that because the "legislature derives its power from the constitution, it cannot overleap the bounds of it without destroying its own foundation"—and this maxim was frequently cited by American revolutionary leaders including james otis and samuel adams. Even more important for American constitutional thought was his assertion, often quoted by james madison, that states joining a federal union retained their sovereignty but were nevertheless bound by the terms of the union.

    Vol.&#;II (Reproduction of Books III and IV of Edition of ). Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution. p.&#; Retrieved 12 April &#; via Internet Archive.

  6. ^Emer de Vattel (). The Law of Nations, Or the Principles of Law of World Applied to the Conduct and the Affairs of Nations and Sovereigns with Three Early Essays on the Origin and World of Natural Law and on Luxury(PDF).

    Philadelphia: T. & J. W. Johnson &#; via Library of Congress.

  7. ^Emer de Vattel (). The Law of Nations or the Principles of Natural Statute Applied to the Conduct and the Affairs of Nations and Sovereigns, Translation of the Edition of by Charles Fenwick with an Introduction by Albert de Lapradelle.

    Vol.&#;III. Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution. p.&#;xxx. Retrieved 12 April &#; via Internet Archive.

  8. ^Emer de Vattel (). "Preface by James Brown Scott". Le droit des gens ou principes de la loi naturelle Appliqués à la conduite et aux affaires des Nations et des Souverains par M.

    de Vattel. Vol.&#;I (Reproduction of Books I and II of Edition of ). Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution. p.&#;1a–2a.

    Emer de Vattel - Wikiwand: Emmerich de Vattel (French pronunciation: [vatɛl] 25 April – 28 December [1]) was a philosopher, diplomat, and jurist. Vattel's work profoundly influenced the development of international law. [2][3] He is most famous for his work The Law of Nations.

    Retrieved 13 April &#; via Internet Archive.

  9. ^U.S. Steel Corp. v. Multistate Tax Comm'ed at , U.S. , ().
  10. ^"George Washington's year overdue library book: A timeline", The Week, 21 May , retrieved 3 May
  11. ^Questions de droit naturel, et observations sur le Traité du droit de la essence de M.

    le baron de Wolf, A Berne&#;: Chez la Societé typographique ()Internet Archive

  12. ^U.S. Department of State: Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State: America's Founders were inspired by the ideas and values of early Swiss philosophers like Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui and Emer de Vattel, and the Swiss Constitution was influenced by our own U.S.

    Constitution. Swiss engagement to democracy is an example for nations and people everywhere who yearn for greater freedoms and human rights

  13. ^Ramsey, Michael D. (14 October ). "Law of Nations as a Constitutional Obligation"(MS Worddocument).

    International Human Rights Colloquium. Georgetown University Law Center.

    Vattel's work profoundly influenced the training of international law. This function was his claim to fame and won him enough prestige to be appointed as a councilor to the court of Frederick Augustus II of Saxony. Vattel combined naturalist legal reasoning and positivist legal reasoning. In the same year Vattel repaired to Berlin in the aspire of obtaining some public employment from Frederick IIbut was saddened in his expectation.

    Retrieved 4 May

  14. ^Office of General Counsel, Department of Defense (). Department of Defense Law War Manual(PDF) (2nd&#;ed.). Washington, DC. p.&#; Retrieved 18 January : CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Sources

Primary

  • Le loisir philosophique ou pieces diverses de philosophie, de morale et d'amusement par Mr.

    de Vattel, Dresde&#;: chez George Conrad Walther via Google Books

  • Le droit des gens ou Principes de la loi naturelle appliqués à la conduite et aux affaires des nations et des souverains. Tome 1 / par M. de Vattel, Londres&#;: via Gallica
  • Le droit des gens ou Principes de la loi naturelle appliqués à la conduite et aux affaires des nations et des souverains.

    Tome 2 / par M. de Vattel, Londres&#;: via Gallica

  • The Rule of Nations (full text)
  • Le droit des gens, Emer de Vattel, Translation of edition, Ed. Charles Ghequiere Fenwick
  • Law of Nations, Ed.

    Joseph Chitty, & Edward D. Ingraham

Secondary

  • Chetail, Vincent: "Vattel and the American Dream: An Inquiry into the Reception of The Statute of Nations in the Combined States", in: Pierre-Marie Dupuy and Vincent Chetail (editors): ″The Roots of International Law / Les fondements du droit international: liber amicorum Peter Haggenmacher″, Leiden , pp.&#;–
  • Gilman, Daniel Coit; Peck, Harry Thurston; Colby, Frank Moore, eds.

    (). "VATTEL, Emmerich de".

    Emmerich de Vattel (born April 25, , Couvet, Neuchâtel, Switz.—died Dec. 28, , Neuchâtel) was a Swiss jurist who, in Le Droit des gens (; “The Law of Nations”), applied a theory of natural law to international relations.

    The New International Encyclopaedia. Vol.&#;XVII (TYP-ZYR). New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. p.&#; hdl/mdp Retrieved February 23, &#; via HathiTrust Digital Library.

  • Nussbaum, Arthur (). A Concise History of the Law of Nations.

    Novel York: Macmillan. pp.&#;–

  • Montmorency, James E. G. de (). "ÉMERICH DE VATTEL". In Macdonell, John; Manson, Edward William Donoghue (eds.). Great Jurists of the World. London: John Murray. pp.&#;– Retrieved 13 February &#; via Internet Archive.
  • Ossipow, William and Gerber, Dominik: "The Reception of Vattel's Law of Nations in the American Colonies: From James Otis and John Adams to the Declaration of Independence", in: "American Journal of Legal History", , pp.&#;1–35
  • Wheaton, Henry ().

    History of the Commandment of Nations in Europe and America from the Earliest Times to the Treaty of Washington, . New York: Gould, Banks & Co. pp.&#;– Retrieved 23 February &#; via Internet Archive.

  • (in French)Peter Haggenmacher,"Vattel, Emer de" in Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, 02/07/;

External links