Emerich de Vattel
Excerpts taken from "The Law of Nations or Principles of the Law of Nature" -1758.
.....The Law of Nations is the science of the law subsisting between nations and states, and of the obligations that flow from it.....
"Men being subject to the laws of nature, and their union in civil society not being sufficient to free them from the obligation of observing these laws, since by this union they do not cease to be men; the entire nation, whose common will is only the result of the united wills of the citizens, remains subject to the laws of nature, and is obliged to respect them in all its proceedings. And since the law arises from the obligation, as we have just observed, the nation has also the same laws that nature has given to men, for the performance of their duty."We must then apply to nations the rules of the law of nature, in order to discover what are their obligations, and what are their laws; consequently the law of nations is originally no more than the law of nature applied to nations. But as the application of a rule cannot be just and reasonable, if it be not made in a manner suitable to the subject; we are not to believe that the law of nations is precisely, and in every case, the same as the law of nature, the subjects of them only excepted; so that we need only substitute nations for individuals. A state or civil society is a subject very different from an individual of the human race: whence, in many cases, there follow, in virtue of the laws of nature themselves, very different obligations and rights; for the same general rule applied to two subjects cannot produce exactly the same decisions, when the subjects are different; since a particular rule that is very just with respect to one subject, is not applicable to another subject of a very different nature. There are then many cases in which the law of nature does not determine between state and state, as it would between man and man. We must therefore know how to accommodate the application of it to different subjects; and it is the art of applying it with a justness founded on right reason, that renders the law of nations a distinct science.
"We call that the necessary law of nations that consists in the application of the law of nature to nations. It is necessary, because nations are absolutely obliged to observe it. This law contains the precepts, prescribed by the law of nature to states, to whom that law is not less obligatory than to individuals; because states are composed of men, their resolutions are taken by men, and the law of nature is obligatory to all men, under whatever relation they act. This is the law which Grotius, and those who follow him, call the internal law of nations, on account of its being obligatory to nations in point of conscience. Several term it the natural law of nations."Since then the necessary law of nations consists in the application of the law of nature to states, and is immutable, as being founded on the nature of things, and in particular on the nature of man; it follows, that the necessary law of nations is immutable.
"Whence, as this law is immutable and the obligations that arise from it necessary and indispensable; nations can neither make any changes in it by their conventions, dispense with it themselves, nor reciprocally, with respect to each other."This is the principle by which we may distinguish lawful conventions or treaties, from those that are not lawful; and innocent and rational customs from those that are unjust and censurable.
"There are things just, and permitted by the necessary law of nations, which states may agree to establish between each other, and which they may consecrate and strengthen by manners and customs. There are also those that are indifferent, which different states may agree to establish at pleasure by treaties, or introduce such custom or such practice as they shall think proper. But all the treaties and all the customs contrary to what the necessary law of nations prescribes, or that are such as it forbids, are unlawful. We shall hereafter find that they are not always such as are agreeable to the internal law of nature or of conscience, and that for reasons which shall be given in their proper place, these conventions, or these treaties, are only valid by the external law. Nations being free and independent, though the actions of one of them are illegal and condemned by the law of conscience, the others are obliged to bear with them, when those actions do not injure their perfect rights. The liberty of one nation will not remain entire, if the others arrogate to themselves an inspection into the rules of its conduct. For this must be contrary to the law of nature, which declares every nation free and independent of others.........The general law of society is, that each should do for others whatever their necessities require, and they are capable of doing, without neglecting what they owe themselves;.....and in conformity to the views of their common Creator; a law that our own safety, our happiness, our most precious advantages, ought to render sacred to every one of us.....
.....Since men are naturally equal, and their rights and obligations are the same, as equally proceeding from nature, nations composed of men, considered as so many free persons living together in the state of nature, are naturally equal, and receive from nature the same obligations and rights. Power or weakness does not in this respect produce any difference. A dwarf is as much a man as a giant; a small republic is as much a sovereign state as the most powerful kingdom.From a necessary consequence of this equality, what is permitted to one nation is permitted to all: and what is not permitted to one is not permitted to any other....
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