Theory and Politics of the Law of Nations: Political Bias in International Law Discourse of Seven German Court Councilors in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Emergence of the modern science of international law in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is usually attributed to Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) and other “founders of international law.” Based on the belief that “all seventeenth and eighteenth-century writers of international law had their own particular political context in mind when writing about the law of nations,” this book sheds light on some worldly aspect of the early writers of the law of nations (i.e., the former name for international law). Studied here are the writings of seven German court councilors, namely, Samuel Rachel (Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (Hannover), Adam Friedrich Glafey (Saxony), Johann Adam Ickstatt (Würzburg-Bamberg), Samuel von Cocceji (Prussia), Johann Jacob Moser (Würtemberg and Hessen-Homburg) and Emer de Vattel (Saxony).