and considered the measures that were justified to preserve this equilibrium, he did not present the balance of power as the defining principle of the system of modern European states. In that regard Vattel seems to have captured the nature of eighteenth-century great power politics more accurately than Wolff ever did.
I am very grateful to Knud Haakonssen for inviting me to contribute this edition of Christian Wolff’s The Law of Nations to Liberty Fund’s Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics series.
[print edition page xxv]
The first edition of The Law of Nations appeared in Halle in 1749. The second edition, which is the basis of the translation in this volume, was published in Frankfurt and Leipzig in 1764. The English text used here is essentially that of the translation by Joseph H. Drake, which was published in 1934 in the Classics of International Law series by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, though it has been revised (substantially in a few places) to make it more readable. Minor errors in the original translation have also been silently corrected. One significant terminological change concerns the English equivalent of the Latin term status, which Drake often translated as “form of government.” In most cases, however, the more general term “condition” seemed more appropriate and has been silently used instead. Another change concerns the title: “a scientific method” in the 1934 translation has been replaced by “the scientific method.” The definite article seemed more appropriate since Wolff had in mind a very specific method.
The reader should note that the abbreviation “h” (hic) is used to indicate when a reference is to a different passage in the book just cited.
Footnotes in this edition have been kept to a minimum. Notes in square brackets are those of the original translator. There are very few references to other authors in the original text, presumably because Wolff believed that the truth ought to be evident from the argument itself, though there are numerous references to passages in his other works. The abbreviations used to refer to these works are explained below.
[print edition page xxvi]
| Cosmol. | Christian Wolff, Cosmologia generalis, methodo scientifica pertractata, qua ad solidam, inprimis Dei atque naturae cognitionem via sternitur (Frankfurt, 1731). |
| Disc. Praelim. | “Discursus praeliminaris de philosophia in genere,” in Christian Wolff, Philosophia rationalis sive logica, methodo scientifica pertractata (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1728). |
| Jus Nat. | Christian Wolff, Jus naturae methodo scientifica pertractatum, 8 vols. (Frankfurt and Leipzig/Halle and Magdeburg, 1740–48). |
| Log. | Christian Wolff, Philosophia rationalis sive logica, methodo scientifica pertractata (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1728). |
| Ontol. | Christian Wolff, Philosophia prima sive ontologia methodo scientifica pertractata (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1730). |
| Phil. Pract. Univ. | Christian Wolff, Philosophia practica universalis, methodo scientifica pertractata (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1738–39). |
| Psych. Emp. | Christian Wolff, Psychologia empirica, methodo scientifica pertractata (Frankfurt, 1732). |
| Psych. Rat. | Christian Wolff, Psychologia rationalis, methodo scientifica pertractata (Frankfurt, 1734). |
| Theol. Nat. | Christian Wolff, Theologia naturalis, methodo scientifica pertractata (Frankfurt, 1736–37). |
[print edition page xxvii]
THE LAW OF NATIONS TREATED ACCORDING TO THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
[print edition page xxviii]
[print edition page 1]
THE LAW OF NATIONS TREATED ACCORDING TO THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
In which the Natural Law of Nations is carefully distinguished from that which is voluntary, stipulative and customary
by
CHRISTIAN WOLFF
State Counselor of the Most Powerful King of the Swedes and of the Landgrave of Hesse, Principal Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy in the University of Marburg, Honorary Professor of St. Petersburg, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris and of the Royal Societies of England and of Russia
A more accurate and polished edition than the preceding ones
FRANKFURT AND LEIPZIG
1764
At the Expense of the Venetian Society
By the authority and with the privileges granted by the Government
[print edition page 2]
[print edition page 3]
TO THE MOST EXCELLENT AND SERENE
WILLIAM CHARLES
HENRY FRISO
PRINCE OF ORANGE AND NASSAU, etc., etc., etc.
Hereditary Stadtholder of the Whole Confederacy of the Netherlands,
Commander-in-chief of the Military and Naval Forces,
and Perpetual Ruler of the East Indies,
etc., etc., etc.
Who Is Most Benign:
That eternal and unchangeable law, which nature herself has established, governs all the acts of individuals as well as those of nations also, by prescribing duties both toward themselves and toward each other. And just as it has united individuals to each other by the closest bond and has established among them a certain society, so that one human being is necessary to another, and nothing is more useful to man than man; so by no less close a bond has it united nations, and moulded them into one enormous state, so that nation is necessary to nation, and nothing is more useful to nation than nation. Indeed, just as it provides for the happiness of individual humans, so also does it provide for that of individual nations, which is promoted and preserved by mutual assistance. Therefore the entire human race is likened to a living body whose individual members are individual nations, and it retains unimpaired health so long as the individual members perform their functions properly. The rulers of nations give life to the members of this body, since the members are as it were endowed with the bare
