The Vattelian Law of Nations: A Legal Normativity in the Regional Context

This thesis investigates the normative character of Emer de Vattel's jus gentium system as he constructs it in the treatise Le Droit des gens. Specifically, it confronts several interpretive and methodological issues generated by historian Ian Hunter's contextualist reading of the subject text, who contends that Vattel committed to European affairs alone (or Eurocentric) in delineating the treatise's normative scope. By analyzing the central set of concepts in Vattel's work—the necessary and voluntary laws of nations—the thesis argues against Hunter. I suggest that Vattel's theoretical design conveys his extra-European aspiration for the legal system's applicable scope. Furthermore, through re-evaluating Hunter's contextualist approach, I demonstrate that a universalistic interpretation of Vattel's argument accurately captures the correspondence between his theoretical enterprise and contextual background. In short, this thesis contends that a contextualist reading of Vattel's jus gentium indicates its normative character as universal.