Natural Law And Civil Sovereignty

In Natural Law and Civil Sovereignty new research by leading international scholars is brought to bear on a single crucial issue: the role of early modern natural law doctrines in reconstructing the relations between moral right and civil authority in the face of profound religious and political conflict. In addition to providing fresh insights into the hard-fought struggle to legitimate a desacralised civil order, the book also shows the degree to which the legitimacy of the modern secular state remains dependent on this decisive set of developments.

"Liberty Fund presents the first modern edition of The Principles of Natural and Politic Law, based on the posthumous unified edition of 1763. The unidentified quotes and recurrent borrowings that abound in the second volume have for the first time been identified. The editor, Petter Korkman, writes that it is not an overstatement "to declare that a solid acquaintance with the Principle will provide the reader with essential...background for understanding the moral and political thought of the mature Enlightenment, whether in its European settings or in the newly formed United States.""--BOOK JACKET.

Vattel, Emmerich de; Joseph Chitty (editor). The Law of Nations; or Principles of the Law of Nature, Applied to the Conduct and Affairs of Nations and Sovereigns. From the French of Monsieur De Vattel. With Additional Notes and References by Edward D. Ingraham, Esq. Philadelphia: T.& J.W. Johnson, 1854. lxvi, 656 pp. Reprinted 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. 2004. ISBN-13: 978-1-58477-501-0. ISBN-10: 1-58477-501-7. Cloth. $125.* Chitty [1776-1841], the distinguished English legal scholar, produced this edition of Vattel's classic study to bring it to the attention of a wider audience. "[I]t is of infinitely more extended utility, he observed, because it "contains a practical collection of ethics, principles, and rules of conduct to be observed and pursued, as well by private individuals as by states, and these of the utmost practical importance to the well-being, happiness, and ultimate and permanent advantage and benefit of all mankind." It should therefore be studied "by every gentleman of liberal education, and by youth, in whom the best moral principles should be inculcated. The work should be familiar in the Universities, and in every class above the inferior ranks of society. And, as regards lawyers, it contains the clearest rules of construing private contracts, and respecting Admiralty and Insurance law.": Preface v.