456 
NATURE 
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[Fiprvary 8, 1917 
the matter, but readily pardoned. It does seem sur- 
prising—and surprise has not infrequently passed into 
resentment—that Vattel, with a mind on a much lower 
plane than the master-mind of Grotius, should yet have 
*‘certainly won a success equal to that of Grotius, per- 
haps even greater.”’ Vattel himself would probably be 
as much surprised as his most caustic critic, for he 
was very humble indeed in his claims and expectations. 
Yet Vattel had the merit, and therefore is entitled to 
the reward, of clear statement and of popular 
presentment; he was fortunate in being more 
accessible through his language; if both sides could 
cite him for their opposing views, the fact stands to 
the credit of his fairness and candour; and if he 
translated Wolff’s ideas into intelligible form, it was 
at least a good service to the science. But Prof. de 
Lapradelle takes pains to demonstrate that Vattel 
was considerably more than a populariser of Grotius 
and Wolff—that he broke away from them on impor- 
tant points, and that, even when he followed them, he 
improved upon them. For example :—‘‘ While Grotius 
and Wolff still held to the patrimonial character of the 
State, Vattel was the first of the writers on the Law 
of Nations to have a clear and concise, systematic, and 
co-ordinated conception of the modern State as a Nation 
truly free, founded on the adherence of its mem- 
bers, and exempt from tyranny, just as he was among 
the first, in the realm of municipal law, to conceive 
of the modern State, not as a maintainer of order, but 
as a promoter of happiness. This whole section of the 
work is truly that of a master.’ Again, on 
certain aspects of arbitration, on the _ interpreta- 
tion of treaties, on the difficult question of diplomatic 
immunities, the work of Vattel cannot be ignored. 
And, not to cite further examples or to go into details, 
“without Wolff’s help Vattel clearly excels Grotius 
in his formulation of the laws of war and of neutrality.” 
“What Vattel lacks is a legal philosophy.” Granted: 
the distinction between perfect and imperfect rights, 
though utilisable so far, yields only an apparent recon- 
ciliation of the sovereignty of the State with the sub- 
jection of the State to law. Still, is Vattel the only 
writer that has not managed ito solve the problem? 
““At a time when diplomacy recognised no other 
rules than caprice or interest Wattel mapped out its 
boundaries. At a time when the sovereignty of the 
State was still confused with the sovereignty of princes 
he formulated the rights of the Nation. Before the 
great events of 1776 and 1789 occurred, he had written 
an International Law, based on the principles of public 
law, which two Revolutions, the American and the 
French, were to make effective. . . . Vattel’s ‘ Law 
of Nations ’isinternational law based on the principles 
of 1789—the complement of the ‘Contrat Social’ of 
Rousseau, the projection on the plane of the Law of 
Nations of the great principles of legal individualism. 
That is what makes Vattel’s work important, what 
accounts for his success, characterises his influence, and 
eventually likewise measures his shortcomings. Grotius 
had written the international law of absolutism; Vattel 
has written the international law of political liberty.” 
(2) Rachel’s dissertations appear to have fallen into 
abeyance : ‘the original text is exceedingly difficult to 
procure.’’ Dr. Pawley Bate furnishes an accurate and 
spirited rendering—the first English translation of the 
work. The introduction, by the late eminent Gottin- 
gen professor, Ludwig von Bar, gives an interesting 
sketch of the strenuous life of Rachel, and a brief but 
pointed summary of the contents of the dissertations. 
Dr. Brown Scott, the general editor, states concisely 
the grounds for including the work in this series :— 
*“Rachel’s Dissertations were ,in the nature of a pro- 
test against the school of natural law, of which Pufen- 
dorf was the very head and front, and contributed in 
NO. 2467, VOL. 98] 
no small measure to the conception of International 
Law as a system of positive law, and Rachel, by virtue 
of this work, occupies an honourable rank as a mem- 
ber or as a forerunner of the positive school.” ‘To. 
attack this [Pufendorf’s] doctrine, which favoured arbi- 
trariness, and based the Law of Nations solely upon 
the principles of Natural Law established by a priori 
reasoning, and at the same time to show that by the 
side of the ius naturae there exists a positive Law of 
Nations—this,"’ says von Bar, ‘‘ was a signal service.”” 
Rachel’s claim to originality, like Vattel’s, has been 
questioned; ‘‘ writers of the late seventeenth and early 
eighteenth centuries, who dealt with his treatise ‘De 
lure Nature et Gentium,’’’ says Nys, ‘‘have remarked 
that its fundamental ideas were borrowed from that 
man of immense talent, Hermann Conring,” whose 
. 
: 
—— se 
lectures on public law he attended at the University of — 
Helmstedt. Conring apparently needed an interpreter 
as much as Wolff did; but, however much Rachel may 
have been a populariser, or even (if you will) a 
plagiarist, he was undoubtedly a vigorous and saga- 
cious man, capable of strong independent work, and 
Nys’s report may be left over for future investigation. 
It is interesting to note that Rachel deals at consider- 
able length with the views of some English jurists and 
theologians who ‘“‘ have devoted themselves more than 
others to the systematic analysis of Natural Law ’— 
John Selden; first and best, then Sharrock, Herbert of 
Cherbury, Cumberland, and, last, Hobbes ‘and his — 
worse than barbarous philosophy.’’ Whatever deduc-— 
tions may fall to be made, Rachel is still a strong 
link in the chain of development, and the Carnegie 
Institution has done good service in rediscovering him — 
and re-introducing him to students of International 
Law. : : { 
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