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Emer de Vattel and the Politics of Good Government

Constitutionalism, Small States and the International System

  • Book
  • © 2020

Overview

Authors:
  1. Antonio Trampus

    1. Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies, Ca’ Foscari University Venice, Venice, Italy

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  • Explores the significance of Emer de Vattel’s seminal work, Droit des gens, in political debate and the conception of good government

  • Draws on unpublished sources from European archives and libraries to trace the 52 editions and translations of this work between 1758 and the end of the nineteenth century

  • Uncovers the reasons behind de Vattel’s controversial success during the age of revolutions

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-viii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction: The Invention of Good Government for the Law of Nations

    • Antonio Trampus
    Pages 1-13

  3. Vattel’s Droit des gens. A Transnational Bestseller from the Age of Enlightenment

    • Antonio Trampus
    Pages 15-38

  4. The Good Government: The Constituting and Constituted Nation

    • Antonio Trampus
    Pages 39-58

  5. The First Reception: Sicily, Corsica and the Mediterranean Islands

    • Antonio Trampus
    Pages 59-71

  6. The Great Crisis of the Sixties and the Political Reforms Between Piedmont and Tuscany

    • Antonio Trampus
    Pages 73-94

  7. The Lost Manuscript and the First Italian Translation of Vattel’s Droit des gens

    • Antonio Trampus
    Pages 95-111

  8. The Consequences of the American Revolution: From Naples to Venice

    • Antonio Trampus
    Pages 113-136

  9. Ships and Diamonds: Vattel Between Linguet and Casanova

    • Antonio Trampus
    Pages 137-153

  10. From Natural Rights to the Rights of Man

    • Antonio Trampus
    Pages 155-172

  11. Bern, the French Revolution and the Congress of Vienna

    • Antonio Trampus
    Pages 173-194

  12. State and Nation: The Political Neutralisation of the Droit des gens in Nineteenth-Century Europe

    • Antonio Trampus
    Pages 195-218

  13. Conclusion: Vattel’s Droit des gens Between Good Government and Modern Democracy

    • Antonio Trampus
    Pages 219-228

  14. Back Matter

    Pages 229-267
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Keywords

About this book

This book explores the history of the international order in the eighteenth and nineteenth century through a new study of Emer de Vattel’s Droit des gens (1758). Drawing on unpublished sources from European archives and libraries, the book offers an in-depth account of the reception of Vattel’s chief work. Vattel’s focus on the myth of good government became a strong argument for republicanism, the survival of small states, drafting constitutions and reform projects and fighting everyday battles for freedom in different geographical, linguistic and social contexts. The book complicates the picture of Vattel’s enduring success and usefulness, showing too how the work was published and translated to criticize and denounce the dangerousness of these ideas. In doing so, it opens up new avenues of research beyond histories of international law, political and economic thought.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies, Ca’ Foscari University Venice, Venice, Italy

    Antonio Trampus

About the author

Antonio Trampus is Professor of Modern History at Ca’ Foscari University Venice, Italy. His research focuses on cultural history and constitutionalism. His books include the critical edition of Benjamin Constant’s commentary on Filangieri (2012) and the edited volume, with K. Stapelbroek, of The Legacy of Vattel’s Droit des gens (2019).

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Emer de Vattel and the Politics of Good Government

  • Book Subtitle: Constitutionalism, Small States and the International System

  • Authors: Antonio Trampus

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48024-0

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-48023-3Published: 01 September 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-48026-4Published: 01 September 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-48024-0Published: 31 August 2020

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VIII, 267

  • Topics: Intellectual Studies, Political History, European History, Legal History, History of the Book

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