Diplomacy, Security & Rights of States: A Reflection on Vattel’s Law of Nations

Emerich de Vattel has been esteemed for his celebrated Law of Nations (1758) in the study of law. He asserted that a system of independent states could maintain the liberty of each without undermining the ideal of an international society. The chief institutions serving this purpose are diplomacy and law defining that security and rights of each state should be mutually respected and also reciprocally observed. This article aims to parse Vattel’s account on security and right of sovereign states to justify their struggle for power. It further argues for the legitimate rights of states as they were obtained in light of the ancient legacy of “ubi societas ibi jus” which refers to where there is a society, there should exist law. Accordingly, it is urgent for nation-states of Europe and then the world to take the legitimate security concerns of all members involved. Methodologically, the study reexamines Vattel’s Law of Nations to analyze the core concepts of security and rights of sovereign states in term of the anarchic international system.