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Book abstract:
This edited collection offers a reassessment of the complicated legacy of Emer de Vattel’s Droit des gens, first published in 1758. One of the most influential books in the history of international law and a major reference point in the fields of international relations theory and political thought, this book played a role in the transformation of diplomatic practice in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. But how did Vattel’s legacy take shape? The volume argues that the enduring relevance of Vattel’s Droit des gens cannot be explained in terms of doctrines and academic disciplines that formed in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Instead, the chapters show how the complex reception of this book took shape historically and why it had such a wide geographical and disciplinary appeal until well into the twentieth century. The volume charts its reception through translations, intellectual, ideological and political appropriations as well as new practical usages, and explores Vattel’s discursive and conceptual innovations. Drawing on a wide range of sources, such as archive memoranda and diplomatic correspondences, this volume offers new perspectives on the book’s historical contexts and cultures of reception, moving past the usual approach of focusing primarily on the text. In doing so, this edited collection forms a major contribution to this new direction of study in intellectual history in general and Vattel’s Droit des gens in particular.About the editors:
Koen Stapelbroek is Associate Professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. His research focuses on intellectual history and political thought. Antonio Trampus is Professor of Modern History at Ca’ Foscari University Venice, Italy. His research focuses on cultural history and constitutionalism.Table of contents:
The Legacy of Vattel’s Droit des gens: Contexts, Concepts, Reception, Translation and Diffusion (Koen Stapelbroek & Antonio Trampus)
Vattel as an Intermediary Between the Economic Society of Berne and Poland
(Radoslaw Szymanski)
“A Poor Imitation of Grotius and Pufendorf?” Biographical Uncertainties and the Laborious Genesis of Vattel’s Droit des gens
(Frédéric Ieva)
The Citizen’s Right to Leave His Country: The Concept of Exile in Vattel’s Droit des gens
(Alberto Carrera)
The Foundations of Vattel’s “System” of Politics and the Context of the Seven Years’ War: Moral Philosophy, Luxury and the Constitutional Commercial State
(Koen Stapelbroek)
The French Reception of Vattel’s Droit des gens: Politics and Publishing Strategies
(Antonella Alimento)
‘Good Government’ and the Tradition of Small States: The Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Reception of the Droit des gens
(Antonio Trampus)
Vattel in the Republic of Genoa: Between Theory and Practice
(Danilo Pedemonte)
Vattel in the Papal States: The Law of Nations and Anti-Prussian Propaganda in Italy at the Time of the Seven Years’ War
(Alberto Clerici)
Vattel’s System for Subjects in International Law, and the Establishment of Norway as a Nation in 1814
(Gert-Fredrik Malt)
The Legacy of Vattel’s Droit des gens in the Long Nineteenth Century
(Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina)
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