Book contents
- Concepts and Contexts of Vattel’s Political and Legal Thought
- Concepts and Contexts of Vattel’s Political and Legal Thought
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Concepts and Contexts of Vattel’s Political and Legal Thought
- Part I Historical and Intellectual Contexts
- Part II Concepts
- 6 Vattel, the Balance of Power, and the Moral Justification of War
- 7 Regular War, Irregulars, and Savages
- 8 Constitutionalism
- 9 Vattel’s Theory of the Social Contract
- Part III Receptions
- Index
- References
8 - Constitutionalism
from Part II - Concepts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 June 2021
- Concepts and Contexts of Vattel’s Political and Legal Thought
- Concepts and Contexts of Vattel’s Political and Legal Thought
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Concepts and Contexts of Vattel’s Political and Legal Thought
- Part I Historical and Intellectual Contexts
- Part II Concepts
- 6 Vattel, the Balance of Power, and the Moral Justification of War
- 7 Regular War, Irregulars, and Savages
- 8 Constitutionalism
- 9 Vattel’s Theory of the Social Contract
- Part III Receptions
- Index
- References
Summary
Was Emer de Vattel a constitutionalist? To what extent can the Law of Nations be considered a treatise on constitutional theory? To answer these questions, I will refer to several different case studies to illustrate and analyse the use of Vattel for the constitutional debate between the eighteenth and nineteenth century. In fact, as José M. Portillo Valdés wrote, sixty years before the Spanish constitution of June 1808, Vattel was the first who explained that only independent and sovereign entities could be labelled nations and his expression ‘free and independent’ would be used by many of the emerging republics in America and Europe.1
- Type
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- Information
- Concepts and Contexts of Vattel's Political and Legal Thought , pp. 161 - 178Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021