The Law of Nations, Or, Principles of the Law of Nature Applied to the Conduct and Affairs of Nations and Sovereigns : A Work Tending to Display the True Interest of Power

Emer de Vattel

Dublin: Luke White, 1792

Octavo. Bound in modern blue cloth. Gilt lettering on spine. Good binding and cover. Dampstain to prelims up to xxxii. Contemporary notation in sepia ink and pencil to chapter beginnings. Note on FEP from 1903 signifying this book was J.C. Boude's book. 

Emer de Vattel was a noted Swiss philosopher and legal theorist.  Vattel made important foundational contributions to modern international law and political philosophy. To begin with, he applied a strictly interstate perspective in which the law of nations is specifically the law governing relations between States. Vattel recognized the existence of a duality of norms governing the conduct of sovereign States: the norms imposed by natural law and those imposed by the positive law of nations. He also theorized about a law of nations that is both ·liberal and pluralist, and which is very much in line with the state of European society at the time of the Enlightenment. Emmanuelle Jouannet, The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law .

Vattel's impact can be seen on the framers of the American constitution.  Jefferson notably read and admired Vattel's work.  An important work in legal history. 

MacDonnell, The Great Jurists of the World 479, 504. Cohen, Bibliography of Early American Law 7187.