Emer de Vattel and the Politics of Good Government

Antonio Trampus is Professor of Modern History at Ca’ Foscari University Venice, Italy. His research focuses on cultural history and constitutionalism. His books include the critical edition of Benjamin Constant’s commentary on Filangieri (2012) and the edited volume, with K. Stapelbroek, of The Legacy of Vattel’s Droit des gens (2019).

• 1 Introduction: The Invention of Good Government for the Law of Nations.- 2 Vattel’s Droit des gens. A Transnational Bestseller from the Age of Enlightenment.- 3 The Good Government: The Constituting and Constituted Nation.- 4 The First Reception: Sicily, Corsica and the Mediterranean Islands.- 5 The Great Crisis of the Sixties and the Political Reforms Between Piedmont and Tuscany.- 6 The Lost Manuscript and the First Italian Translation of Vattel’s Droit des gens.- 7 The Consequences of the American Revolution: From Naples to Venice.- 8 Ships and Diamonds: Vattel Between Linguet and Casanova.- 9 From Natural Rights to the Rights of Man.- 10 Bern, the French Revolution and the Congress of Vienna.- 11 State and Nation: The Political Neutralisation of the Droit des gens in Nineteenth-Century Europe.- 12 Conclusion: Vattel’s Droit des gens Between Good Government and Modern Democracy.