Chapter

Vattel and the laws of war : a tale of three circles

Stephen C. Neff

Vattel's international law in a XXIst century perspective = Le droit international de Vattel vu du XXIe siècle

Leiden ; Boston : M. Nijhoff, 2011

p. 317-333

English

Vattel set out a tripartite analytical structure for the ascertaining of the rules of ius in bello. It is appropriate to think of them as a set of nested concentric circles, sharing a single conceptual centre-point : the natural law principle of necessity. The first circle consisted of what was labelled in Vattel's terminology as the "necessary" law of war, most tightly and directly tied to the core principle of necessity. The second circle consist of a code of conduct referred to as the "voluntary" law of nations, which referred to laws created by humans for the purpose of putting the principles of the natural law in effective practice. The contents of this code were a sort of emanation from the principle of necessity in the sense that its function was to re-state or codify the natural-law principle of necessity in general terms, with a view to making it more easily applicable in practice. The third analytical circle took an important step of extending the reach of the code of conduct so that it governed the actions of the unjust belligerent as well as the just one. This chapter explores the three circles of Vattel's exposition of the laws of war.

• Vattel's international law in a XXIst century perspective = Le droit international de Vattel vu du XXIe siècle / ed. by Vincent Chetail and Peter Haggenmacher