The Law of Nations: Or, Principles of the Law of Nature, Applied to the Conduct and Affairs of Nations and Sovereigns

Emer de Vattel

G. G. and J. Robinson, 1797 - International law - 500 pages

Contents

• Of the Right to Security and the Effects of the Sovereignty: xli
• i: lvi
• Sect page: lvii
• Preciſe meaning of the order page 400: lvii
• CHAP XVIII: lvii
• вооKIV: lvii
• Minifters of the nation or of the regents during an inter regnum 455: lvii
• Right of repreffing him by force if he behaves as: lvii
• Of Nations or Sovereign States: lxvii
• Of the ſtate and of fovereignty page: 1
• Authority of the body politic over the members ibid 3 Of the feveral kinds of government: 2
• What are fovereign ſtates ibid 5 States bound by unequal alliance ibid 6 or by treaties of protection ibid 7 Tributary ſtates: 3
• Feudatory ſtates ibid 9 Two ſtates ſubject to the fame prince ibid 10 States forming a federal republic ibid 11 A ftate that has paffed under the domini...: 4
• States bound by unequal alliance: 5
• Prefervation and perfection of a nation ibid 15 End of civil ſociety: 5
• A nation is under an obligation to preſerve herſelf ibid 17 and to preferve her members ibid 18 A nation has a right to every thing neceffary for her ...: 6
• Tributary ſtates: 7
• The nation ought to choose the beſt conſtitution: 9
• A nation ought to act agreeably to her nature: 13
• His rights in that reſpect ibid: 15
• Particular limitation with reſpect to the prince 141: 18
• She ought to avoid every thing that might occafion her de ſtruction ibid: 19
• Her right to every thing that may promote this end ibid: 20
• Obedience which ſubjects owe to a fovereign: 21
• In what cafes they may refift him ibid: 23
• Whether elective kings be real fovereigns: 24
• States called patrimonial: 30
• War undertaken upon juſt grounds but from vicious: 31
• Husbandry ought to be placed in an honourable light ibid: 36
• How an offenfive war is just in an evident cauſe: 37
• Obligation to carry on foreign trade: 38
• Other origin of that right ibid: 39
• How a nation acquires a perfect right to a foreign trade: 40
• Simple permiffion to carry on trade ibid 95 Whether commercial rights be ſubject to preſcription ibid 96 Impreſcriptibility of rights founded on treaty: 41
• Monopolies and trading companies with exclufive privileges: 42
• Balance of trade and attention of government in that reſpect: 43
• Utility of highways canals c: 44
• Of Money and Exchange 105 Establishment of money: 45
• Duty of the nation or prince with reſpect to the coin ibid 107 Their rights in that reſpect: 46
• How one nation may injure another in the article of coin: 47
• Inſtruction ibid 112 Education of youth: 48
• It produces the right of reſiſtance ibid: 49
• It produces the right of reſiſtance ibid: 50
• neceffity thereof: 51
• Arts and ſciences ibid: 51
• and to direct the knowledge and virtues of the citizens: 52
• Infractions of the treaty of peace by the fubjects 451: 53
• origin of the right of fuc: 58
• Difference of religion does not deprive a prince of his crown: 61
• Circumſpection to be uſed 159: 62
• unleſs ſhe approve or ratify them 162: 75
• A nation ought to know herself 8: 77
• Of the public authority 8: 77
• to eſtabliſh good laws ibid: 78
• Utility of domestic trade ibid: 84
• Riches ibid: 90
• Sect page: 91
• Sect page: 91
• Example of the Swiſs ibid: 93
• Theſe compacts annulled by the failure of protection: 95
• Right of ordering away an embaſſador who is guilty or juſtly ſuſpected ibid: 96
• Her right over the part in her poffeffion ibid: 99
• Colonies: 101
• What is our country ΙΟΙ 212 Citizens and natives ibid 213 Inhabitants: 102
• Naturaliſation ibid 215 Citizens children born in a foreign country ibid 216 Children born at ſea ibid 217 Children born in the armies of the ſtate or i...: 103
• Settlement ibid 219 Vagrants ibid 220 Whether a perfon may quit his country ibid 221 How a perfon may abſent himself for a time: 105
• Cafes in which a citizen has a right to quit his country ib 224 Emigrants: 106
• Sources of their right ibid 226 If the fovereign infringes their right he injures them: 107
• Supplicants ibid 228 Exile and banishment ibid 229 The exile and the baniſhed man have a right to live fome where: 108
• Nature of that right ibid 231 Duty of nations towards them ibid 232 A nation cannot puniſh them for faults committed out of her territories: 109
• Aggregate wealth of a nation and its diviſions ibid 236 Two modes of acquiring public property: 110
• Taxes: 111
• Sovereign poſſeſſing that power ibid 243 Duties of the prince with respect to taxes: 112
• Dominion over public property: 113
• Alienation of the property of a corporation ibid: 114
• How each member is to enjoy it ibid 250 Right of anticipation in the use of it ibid 251 The fame right in another cafe ibid 252 Prefervation and repai...: 115
• Duty and right of the fovereign in that reſpect ibid 254 Private property ibid 255 The fovereign may fubject it to regulations of police ibid 256 Inher...: 116
• Duties of the nation in that reſpect ibid 259 Duties of the prince: 117
• Alienation of a part of the ſtate: 118
• Of Rivers Streams and Lakes: 120
• Bed of a river which is dried up or takes another courſe: 121
• Confcquence of a river changing its bed 122: 122
• propriated 125: 123
• A river that ſeparates two territories 120: 123
• Works tending to turn the current ibid: 123
• or generally prejudicial to the rights of others ibid 273 Rules relative to interfering rights ibid 274 Lakes 123: 123
• Increase of a lake ibid: 124
• Land formed on the banks of a lake: 125
• Equality to be obſerved towards both parties as to: 126
• coafts: 128
• The parts of the fea poſleſſed by a fovereign are within: 131
• BOOK II: 131
• Neutral country not to afford a retreat to troops that they: 133
• General principle of all the mutual duties of nations: 135
• Mutual love of nations ibid: 139
• Rule and meaſure of the offices of humanity: 140
• Offences: 142
• Immemorial preſcription: 143
• Claimant alleging reasons for his filence 190: 145
• Preſcription founded on the actions of the proprietor ibid: 146
• Ufucaption and preſcription take place between nations ibid: 147
• More difficult between nations to found them on a pre ibid ſumptive deſertion: 148
• Confuls ibid: 149
• Other principles that enforce preſcription 191: 150
• CHAP V: 160
• the citizens: 164
• What is comprehended in the domain of a nation 165: 165
• A confequence of that principle ibid 83 Connection of the domain of the nation with the ſovereignty ib 84 Jurifdiction: 166
• Effects of the jurisdiction in foreign countries ibid 86 Defert and uncultivated places: 167
• Duty of the nation in that reſpect: 168
• Right of poffeffing things that have no owner ibid 89 Rights granted to another nation ibid 90 Notallowable to expel a nation from the country ſhein...: 169
• The limits of territories ought to be carefully afcertained ibid 93 Violation of territory ibid 94 Prohibition to enter the territory: 170
• A country poſſeſſed by ſeveral nations at the fame time ibid 96 A country poffeffed by a private perſon ibid 97 Independent families in a country ibi...: 171
• Entering the territory: 172
• Foreigners are fubject to the laws ibid 102 and punishable according to the laws ibid 103 Who is the judge of their difputes: 173
• What are the rights of which men cannot be deprived: 178
• Right retained by each nation over the property of others: 179
• and of procuring neceffaries ibid: 181
• Right of innocent uſe ibid: 181
• Right of innocent uſe ibid: 182
• The nation ought not to increaſe her power by unlawful: 184
• Ufucaption and preſcription derived from the law of nature: 190
• Law of treaties or cuſtom in this matter: 192
• Compacts agreements or conventions ibid 154 By whom treaties are made ibid 155 Whether a ftate under protection may make treaties: 193
• Compacts agreements or conventions ibid 154 By whom treaties are made ibid 155 Whether a ftate under protection may make treaties 193 ibid 156 ...: 194
• Nullity of treaties made for an unjust or dishoneft purpoſe: 195
• Obligation to obſerve treaties ibid 164 The violation of a treaty is an act of injustice: 196
• Treaties cannot be made contrary to thoſe already exiſting ib 166 How treaties inay be concluded with feveral nations with the fame view: 197
• Collition of thoſe treaties with the duties we owe to our felves: 198
• Obligation to preſerve equality in treaties: 199
• Difference between equal treaties and equal alliances 200: 200
• Unequal treaties and unequal alliances ibid 176 An alliance with diminution of fovereignty may annul pre ceding treaties: 202
• We ought as much as poſſible to avoid making unequal alliances: 203
• Thoſe made by fubordinate powers: 207
• CHAP XIII: 213
• Of the Diſſolution and Renewal of Treaties: 213
• How a treaty is diſſolved when violated by one of the con: 214
• Thoſe made by fubordinate powers: 218
• Treaties ſacred between nations: 219
• The faith of treaties is facred: 220
• He who violates his treaties violates the law of nations ibid: 221
• Regulations eſtabliſhed by treaty or cuſtom reſpecting poſtliminium ibid: 222
• CHAP XV: 223
• The law of nations violated by the popes: 223
• This abuſe authorised by princes: 224
• Private contracts of the fovereign: 226
• They are binding on the nation and on his ſucceſſors: 227
• Debts of the sovereign and the ſtate ibid 217 Donations of the fovereign: 228
• CHAP XV: 229
• The faith of treaties does not depend on the difference: 230
• The law of nations violated by the popes ibid 224 This abuſe authorised by princes: 231
• Ufe of an oath in treaties It does not conſtitute the obligation: 232
• It does not change the nature of obligations ibid 227 It gives no preeminence to one treaty above another ibid 228 It cannot give force to a treaty tha...: 233
• Faith tacitly pledged ibid: 234
• CHAP XVI: 235
• It gives the guarantee no right to interfere unaſked in: 236
• Nature of the obligation it impoſes ibid 238 The guaranty cannot impair the rights of a third party ibid 239 Duration of the guaranty: 237
• How she is obliged to restore it: 238
• How she may appropriate it to herself ibid 245 Hoftages ibid 246 What right we have over hoſtages: 239
• Treaties with furety ibid: 240
• Pawns ſecurities and mortgages ibid: 241
• them ibid: 242
• Subſtitute for a hoſtage ibid 257 Hoftage fucceeding to the crown ibid 258 The liability of the hostage ends with the treaty ibid 259 The violation of t...: 243
• Eminent domain annexed to the fovereignty ibid: 244
• Second general maxim if he who could and ought to have explained himself has not done it it is to his own detri ment: 245
• what is allowed or not during its continuance Firſt rule Each party may do at home what they have a right to do in time of peace 408: 245
• Fifth general maxim the interpretation ought to be made according to certain rules: 246
• The faith of treaties impoſes an obligation to follow thoſe rules: 247
• General rule of interpretation ibid 271 The terms are to be explained conformably to common ufage: 248
• Interpretation of ancient treaties ibid 273 Quibbles on words: 249
• Equivocal expreffions: 250
• Equivocal expreſſions: 251
• Not neceſſary to give a term the ſame ſenſe everywhere in the fame deed: 252
• or which renders the act null and void of effect: 253
• Obſcure expreſſions interpreted by others more clear in the fame author: 254
• Interpretation drawn from the connection and relation of the things themſelves: 255
• Interpretation founded on the reaſon of the deed: 256
• Where many reaſons have concurred to determine the will ib 289 What conſtitutes a fufficient reaſon for an act of the will: 257
• Extenſive interpretation founded on the reaſon of the act ib 291 Frauds tending to elude laws or promiſes: 258
• Restrictive interpretation: 259
• or what is too fevere and burthenſome: 260
• Neceffity of eſtabliſhing rules of interpretation: 262
• Expreſſions ſuſceptible of an extenſive and a limited ſenſe: 263
• Second general maxim if he who could and ought to have: 264
• the con trary is odious: 265
• Things of a mixed nature: 266
• Interpretation of favourable things ibid 308 Interpretation of odious things: 267
• Examples: 268
• How we ought to interpret deeds of pure liberality: 270
• Colliſion of laws or treaties: 271
• Of the Mode of terminating Disputes between Nations 323 General direction on this ſubject: 274
• Every nation is bound to give fatisfaction reſpecting the juſt complaints of another: 275
• amicable accommodation: 276
• Bed of a lake dried up ibid: 277
• Conferences and congreſſes 331 Diftinction to be made between evident and doubtful ibid cafes: 278
• Effential rights and thoſe of leſs importance: 279
• CHAP XXIII: 279
• How we acquire a right of recurring to force in a doubt: 280
• L: 289
• Sect page 1 Definition of war: 291
• Public war ibid 3 Right of making war ibid 4 It belongs only to the fovereign power: 292
• Defenfive and offenſive war: 293
• Right of levying troops: 294
• Whether there be any exemptions from carrying arms ibid 11 Soldiers pay and quarters: 296
• Hoſpitals for invalids ibid 13 Mercenary foldiers: 297
• Rule to be obſerved in their enliſtment: 298
• Enlisting in foreign countries ibid 16 Obligation of foldiers: 299
• Military laws ibid 18 Military difcipline ibid 19 Subordinate powers in war ibid 20 How their promiſes bind the ſovereign: 300
• In what cafes their promiſes bind only themſelves ibid 22 Their aſſumption of an authority which they do not poſſeſs ib 23 How they bind their inferi...: 301
• What is in general a juſt cauſe of war: 302
• What war is unjust ibid 28 The object of war ibid 29 Both justificatory reaſons and proper motives requifite in un dertaking a war: 303
• Pretexts: 304
• War undertaken merely for advantage ibid 34 Nations who make war without reaſon or apparent mo tives: 305
• How an offenſive war is just in an evident cauſe ibid 38 in a doubtful cauſe: 306
• War cannot be just on both fides ibid 40 Sometimes reputed lawful ibid 41 War undertaken to puniſh a nation: 307
• Alone and of itſelf it cannot give a right to attack him: 308
• How the appearances of danger give that right: 309
• Another caſe more evident: 310
• Other allowable means of defence against a formidable power: 311
• What war is unjust ibid: 311
• Firſt rule in caſes of colliſion ibid: 312
• Second rule ibid: 313
• Third rule ibid: 314
• CHAP IV: 315
• Fourth rule 272: 316
• Formalities of a declaration of war ibid 56 Other reaſons for the neceſſity of its publication ibid 57 Defenfive war requires no declaration: 317
• Sixth rule 273: 318
• Publication of the war and manifeſtoes ibid 65 Decorum and moderation to be obſerved in the manifeſtoes: 319
• What is a lawful war in due form ibid 67 It is to be diftinguished from informal and unlawful war: 320
• Of the Enemy and of Things belonging to the Enemy: 321
• General remark on the manner of obſerving all the preced: 322
• two of the parties in an alliance coming: 327
• Mediation: 328
• CHAP VII: 332
• Arbitration: 329
• Effential rights and thoſe of leſs importance: 332
• and even without attempting other meafures: 334
• Voluntary law of nations on that fubject ibid 281: 337
• Contraband goods 336: 336
• How reparation of an injury is to be fought: 338
• Retaliation: 339
• Various modes of puniſhing without having recourſe to 283: 340
• Retortion ibid ibid: 341
• Repriſals: 342
• What is required to render them lawful 284 ibid: 343
• Upon what effects repriſals are made: 344
• The fovereign alone can order repriſals: 346
• Repriſals againſt a nation for actions of her ſubjects and ibid in favour of the injured ſubjects ibid: 347
• but not in favour of foreigners: 348
• What may be deemed a refuſal to do justice ibi: 350
• Subjects arreſted by way of repriſals: 351
• Fugitives and deferters: 351
• Repriſals ibid: 351
• Subjects arreſted by way of repriſals 288: 352
• Just repriſals do not afford a juft caufe for war: 353
• How we ought to confine ourſelves to repriſals or at ibid length proceed to hoftilities: 354
• How prifoners of war are to be treated ibid: 355
• The ſtate is bound to procure their releaſe ibid: 358
• Wether poisoned weapons may be uſed in war: 361
• CHAP IX: 364
• What is withheld from him in order to oblige him to give: 365
• The right of feizing them ibid: 365
• Contributions: 366
• What treaties are to be obferved between enemies: 372
• CHAP: 373
• Of Faith between Enemies of Stratagems Artifices in War: 373
• Eighth rule: 374
• Spies: 375
• Of the Sovereign who wages an unjust: 378
• Great guilt of the sovereign who undertakes it ibid: 379
• Difficulty of repairing the injury he has done ibid: 380
• Why they are bound to admit the voluntary law of nations: 382
• order: 399
• Preciſe meaning of the order: 400
• The fovereigns faith engaged in them: 406
• Stipulation of a penalty against the infractor ibid: 407
• Prifoner released on condition of procuring the releaſe: 417
• piration of the truce 412: 417
• another: 420
• Prifoner retaken before he has paid his former ranſom ib 284 Prifoner refcued before he has received his liberty ibid 285 Whether the things which a...: 421
• Who are rebels: 422
• Popular commotion inſurrection fedition ibid 290 How the fovereign is to fuppress them ibid 291 He is bound to perform the promises he has made t...: 423
• Civil war: 424
• A civil war produces two independent parties 425: 425
• They are to obſerve the common laws of war ibid 295 The effects of civil war diftinguished according to cafes: 426
• Conduct to be pursued by foreign nations: 427
• Of Peace and the Obligation to cultivate it Sect page 1 What peace is: 429
• Protection due to foreigners ibid 105 Their duties ibid 106 To what burthens they are fubject 174: 430
• The fovereigns obligation in that reſpect ibid 4 Extent of that duty ibid 5 Disturbers of the public peace: 431
• How far war may be continued ibid 7 Peace the end of war: 432
• By whom it may be concluded ibid 11 Alienations made by a treaty of peace: 433
• How the fovereign may in a treaty diſpoſe of what concerns individuals: 435
• Whether peace can be made with a ufurper: 436
• Allies included in the treaty of peace ibid 16 Affociates to treat each for himself: 437
• Mediation ibid 18 On what footing peace may be concluded ibid 19 General effect of the treaty of peace: 438
• Amnesty: 439
• Things not mentioned in the treaty ibid 22 Things not included in the compromiſe or amnesty ibid 23 Former treaties mentioned or confirmed in the ...: 440
• When the obligation of the treaty commences 440 ibid 25 Publication of the peace 26 Time of the execution: 441
• Ceſſation of contributions: 442
• Products of the thing restored or ceded ibid ibid 31 In what condition things are to be restored: 447
• They do that by the agency of public miniſters: 453

Popular passages

Page 131 - All commerce is entirely prohibited with a besieged town. If I lay siege to a place, or only form the blockade. I have a right to hinder any one from entering, and to treat as an enemy whoever attempts to enter the place, or carry any thing to the besieged, without my leave.

Page 23 - All mankind have an equal right to things that have not yet fallen into the possession of any one, and those things belong to the person who first takes possession of them. When, therefore, a nation finds a country uninhabited and without an owner, it may lawfully take possession of it, and after it has sufficiently made known its will in this respect, it cannot...

Page 23 - In effect, when navigators have met with desert countries in which those of other nations had, in their transient visits, erected some monument to show their having taken possession of them, they have paid as little regard to that empty ceremony as to the regulation of the popes, who divided a great part of the world between the crowns of Castile and Portugal.

Page 123 - ... to the calamities of war, when he has it in his power to maintain them in the enjoyment of an honourable and falutary peace. And if to this imprudence, this want of love for his people, he moreover adds...

Page 104 - The voice of equity and the general rule of contracts require that the conditions between the parties should be equal. We are not to presume, without very strong reasons, that one of the Contracting Parties intended to favour the other to his own prejudice ; but there is no danger in extending what is for the common advantage. If, therefore, it happens that the Contracting Parties have not made known their...

Page 66 - CHAP. vii. certam persons or for certain particular purposes, according as he may think it advantageous to the state. There is nothing in all this that does not flow from the rights of domain and sovereignty : every one is obliged to pay respect to the prohibition ; and whoever dares to violate it, incurs the penalty decreed to render it effectual. But the prohibition ought to be known, as well as the penalty annexed to disobedience : those who are ignorant of it, ought to be informed of it when...

Page xxix - It is not allowable to interpret what has no need of interpretation, and when the words have a definite and precise meaning, to go elsewhere in search of conjecture in order to restrict or extend the meaning.

Page 51 - Further, one country is fitter for some kind of products than another; as, for instance, fitter for the vine than for tillage, If trade and barter take place, every nation, on the certainty of procuring what it wants, will employ its land and its industry in the most advantageous manner; and mankind in general prove gainers by it.

Page 69 - ... liberty of living in the country without respecting the laws. If he violates them he is punishable as a disturber of the public peace, and guilty of a crime against the society in which he lives; but he is not obliged to submit, like the subjects, to all the commands of the sovereign ; and if such things are required of him as he is unwilling to perform he may quit the country."— Vattel.

Page 68 - Even in the countries where every stranger freely enters, the sovereign is supposed to allow him access only upon this tacit condition, that he be subject to the laws ; I mean the general laws made to maintain good order, and which have no relation to the title of citizen, or of subject of the state.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Law of Nations: Or, Principles of the Law of Nature, Applied to the Conduct and Affairs of Nations and Sovereigns
• Author: Emer de Vattel
• Publisher: G. G. and J. Robinson, 1797
• Original from: Harvard University
• Digitized: Dec 12, 2005
• Length: 500 pages