Graduate Institute Publications and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers just released “Vattel's International Law from a XXIst Century Perspective”, edited by Institute Professor of International Law, Vincent Chetail and Emeritus Professor of International Law, Peter Haggenmacher.

Emer de Vattel (1714 –1767) was a Swiss legal expert whose theories laid the foundation of modern international law. Born in Neuchatel, his most influential work is “The Law of Nations or the Principles of Natural Law Applied to the Conduct and to the Affairs of Nations and of Sovereigns”.

Also contributing to the book were Institute Professors Bruno Arcidiacono and Pierre-Marie Dupuy, Emeritus Professor and former Institute Director Lucius Caflisch, and Visiting Faculty member Eric Wyler along with 12 other international law experts.


On the occasion of the book’s release, Graduate Institute Publications interviewed Vincent Chetail.

What was your motivation for editing this book?

No other scholar has so deeply influenced the development of international law than Vattel. The book, which I edited with Professor Peter Haggenmacher, attempts to question the relevance of Vattel through a contemporary reading of his "Law of Nations".

How did Vattel’s ideas so profoundly affect – or even bring about the creation of – international law?

His thought has proved to be instrumental for conceptualising international law as a law between and centred on states. This is the main reason why his "Law of Nations" has remained the most frequently quoted treatise of international law more than 250 years after its publication.

Is Law of Nations still relevant today or is contemporary international legal theory fundamentally different?

Even if the state remains (in every sense of the word) the primary subject of international law, the concept of sovereignty has since lost its descriptive and analytical qualities. International law has evolved from a law of coexistence, founded on the juxtaposition of sovereign entities, toward a law of interdependence, which calls for a global response that transcends the state and invites its surpassing. This edited book offers a unique opportunity for revisiting Vattel from a XXIst century perspective. It accordingly evaluates his "Law of Nations" through a wide-ranging and comprehensive analysis written by well-known experts of international law on various key contemporary issues, such as the international system, the law of peace and the law of war.

Vincent Chetail is Associate Professor of Public International Law at the Institute and Research Director at the Programme for the Study of Global Migration and at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.

Peter Haggenmacher, Emeritus Professor, was a member of the Institute’s teaching faculty from 1985 to 2009. He is an expert in the foundations and history of international law. His major publications have focused on Hugo Grotius and the doctrine of just war.