Abstract
This chapter reconstructs the reception of Vattel’s Droit des Gens in the Republic of Genoa during the second half of the Eighteenth century. It considers the diffusion of the work from an unusual perspective. Instead of focusing on a debate between jurists, this chapter deals with the traces that the Droit des gens left in the everyday operations of Genoese magistratures. The chapter focuses especially on the neutrality proclamation of 1779 and the accompanying law that represents first Genoese attempt that helped to transform customary neutrality into an internationally accepted written norm. This law was inspired by one of the hallmarks of Vattel’s thinking, the identification of the legitimacy of small states to claim the exercise of sovereign autonomy on the international scene. The analysis of the Genoese case is compared with the Tuscan declaration of neutrality of the same year, where the usage of the Droit des gens was altogether more direct, full and self-conscious.
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Notes
- 1.
Regarding the genesis of the work and the events surrounding its publication, Édouard Béguelin, “En souvenir de Vattel”, Extrait du Recueil des travaux offerts par la faculté de droit de l’Université de Neuchâtel à la Société suisse des Juristes à l’occasion de sa réunion à Neuchâtel 15–17 septembre 1929 (Neuchâtel: Université de Neuchâtel, 1929), 33–176; Michel Schlup, Trésors de l’édition neuchâteloise (Hauterive: Attinger, 1981), 54–57. I will refer to the first edition: Emer Vattel, Le droit des gens, ou Principes de la loi naturelle, appliqués à la conduite et aux affaires des Nations et des Souverains (London: Abraham Droz, 1758), 2 vols.
- 2.
On the issue of the false places of publication, Mario Infelise, “Falsificazioni di Stato”, False date: repertorio delle licenze di stampa veneziane con falso luogo di edizione (1740–1797), ed. Patriza Bravetti and Orfea Granzotto (Florence: Firenze University Press, 2008), 7–27.
- 3.
Antonio Trampus, “La traduzione toscana del Droit des gens di Emer de Vattel (circa 1780): contesti politici, transferts culturali e scelte traduttive”, Traduzione e transfert nel XVIII secolo. Tra Francia, Italia e Germania, ed. Giulia Cantarutti and Stefano Ferrari (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2014), 143–174.
- 4.
On the success of Vattel both in the eighteenth century and later, see Peter Haggenmacher, “Le modéle de Vattel et la discipline du droit international”, Le droit international de Vattel vu du XXIe siècle, ed. Vincent Chetail and Peter Haggenmacher (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2011); Antonio Trampus, “Il ruolo del traduttore nel tardo Illuminismo: Lodovico Antonio Loschi e la versione italiana del Droit des gens di Emer de Vattel”, Il linguaggio del tardo Illuminismo. Politica, diritto e società civile, ed. Antonio Trampus (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2011), 81–108; “The Circulation of Vattel’s Droit des gens in Italy: The Doctrinal and Practical Model of Government”, War, Trade and Neutrality. Europe and the Mediterranean in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, ed. Antonella Alimento (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2011), 217–232; and Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina, “Per i trecento anni dalla nascita di Emer de Vattel (1714–2014)”, Historia et ius. Rivista di storia giuridica dell’età medievale e moderna 6 (2014), 1–7, paper 13 (online).
- 5.
The work of Vattel probably began life as a simple translation into French of Wolff’s work, which was written in Latin. See Emer de Vattel à Jean Henry Samuel Formey. Correspondance autour du Droit des gens, ed. André Bandelier (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2012). Vattel himself paid tribute to the “master” in the preface to his book: Vattel, Droit des gens, Preface, xx–xxii.
- 6.
Diego Lazzarich, Stato moderno e diritto delle genti. Vattel tra politica e guerra (Benevento: Edizioni Labrys, 2012); Haggenmacher, “Le modéle de Vattel”, 5.
- 7.
Archivio di Stato di Genova (ASG), Archivio segreto 1712, Letter by Bracelli to the Collegi di Governo, 2 May 1758.
- 8.
On the Republic’s abandonment of neutrality during the War of the Austrian Succession and the consequences, Danilo Pedemonte, “Bombe sul Dominio. La campagna inglese contro la Repubblica di Genova durante la guerra di successione austriaca”, Mediterranea. Ricerche storiche 10 (2013), 109–148. For a broader discussion on the neutrality of the Republic, Luciana Garibbo, La neutralità della Repubblica di Genova. Saggio sulla condizione dei piccoli Stati nell’Europa del Settecento (Milan: Giuffrè, 1972).
- 9.
At the beginning of the war, Antonio Maria Botto, the General Commissioner of Ventimiglia, complained of having “of four cannons only two that are serviceable”, adding that “the rammers cannot be used as they are without wool, as we are without other necessary things”. ASG, Archivio segreto 1712, 23 July 1756. The fort at Vado was in no better condition, such that the Navy Junta was forced to ban flags from being raised there and ensure that no “blockade or other sign of protection be made” in the event of any hostility in its proximity. ASG, Archivio segreto 1769, 11 May 1756.
- 10.
On the issue of territorial waters: Andrea Addobbati, “Acque territoriali: modelli dottrinari e mediazioni diplomatiche tra medioevo ed età moderna”, Frontiere di terra, frontiere di mare. La Toscana moderna nello spazio mediterraneo, ed. Elena Fasano Guarini and Paola Volpini (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2008), 173–198.
- 11.
See, for example, Andrea Addobbati, “La neutralità del porto di Livorno in età medicea. Costume mercantile e convenzione internazionale”, Livorno 1606–1806. Luogo di incontro tra popoli e culture (Turin: Allemandi, 2009), 71–85; Franco Angiolini, “From the Neutrality of the Port to the Neutrality of the State: Projects, Debates and Laws in Habsburg-Lorraine Tuscany”, War, Trade and Neutrality, 82–100; Jean-Pierre Filippini, “La graduelle affirmation de la souveraineté du Grand-Duc de Toscane sur le port de Livourne: es édits de neutralité de la période des Habsbourg-Lorraine”, Nuovi studi livornesi 16 (2009), 23–32.
- 12.
In December 1740, for example, the secretary of state Giambattista Pittaluga, on the order of the Colleges of Government, advised the English consul Birtles how “the Most Serene Government has been concerned from the beginning of the current war between England and Spain to agree rules for the entry and exit of ships based on the example of those established in Livorno” (my italics). ASG, Archivio segreto 1705, 11 December 1740.
- 13.
On Pierallini, see Calogero Piazza, Schiavitù e guerra dei barbareschi. Orientamenti toscani di politica transmarina (1747–1768) (Milan: Giuffrè, 1978), 17–83.
- 14.
Archivio di Stato di Livorno (ASLi), Governo civile e militare di Livorno 1025, 22 July 1768.
- 15.
Ibid. On the importance of the 1757 for the development of the debate that would lead to the drafting of the law of neutrality of 1 August 1778, Angiolini, From the Neutrality of the Port to the Neutrality of the State.
- 16.
This community of English merchants present in Genoa was substantially and permanently reduced after the War of the Austrian Succession . Some important English traders moved to Livorno at the time of the bombardment of September 1745, and some Jewish traders moved with them (ASG, Archivio segreto 1719, Nota dei forastieri debitori dell’imposizione fatta li 15 settembre 1746). In the 1770s, there were only three English trading houses left in Genoa (The National Archives (TNA), Foreign Office, 28/1).
- 17.
In 1719, during the war of Cardinal Alberoni, the Republic wanted to establish an agreement on the basis of the Livorno articles of 1691. The English emissary, however, proposed the addition of certain articles but the agreement was not reached both because of the Republic’s uncertainty and the rapid end of the conflict. See TNA, State papers foreign 79/11; ASG, Archivio segreto 2281. In 1739–1740, it was instead the English emissaries George Jackson and John Birtles who refused to sign the articles of neutrality modelled on those in force in Livorno. ASG, Archivio segreto 1704, Istruzioni dei Collegi al segretario Giambattista Piccaluga, 21 June 1740; Ivi, Relazione di Piccaluga ai Collegi, 14 December 1740.
- 18.
Andrea Addobbati, “L’espace de la guerre et du commerce: réflexions sur le Port of Trade polanyien à partir du cas de Livourne”, Cahiers de la Méditerranée 35 (2012), 233–250; Andrea Addobbati, Commercio rischio guerra. Il mercato delle assicurazioni marittime di Livorno (1694–1795) (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2007), 82 ff.
- 19.
Addobbati, La neutralità del porto di Livorno in età medicea, 74.
- 20.
Ibid., 84.
- 21.
Alice Blythe Raviola, L’Europa dei piccoli Stati. Dalla prima età moderna al declino dell’Antico Regime (Rome: Carocci, 2008), 97–98; see also Garibbo, La neutralità della Repubblica di Genova, 3.
- 22.
Biblioteca Labronica di Livorno, B. 44. 18, Memoria Istorica concernente la franchigia e neutralità di Livorno sotto il governo di Casa Medici. Quoted from Addobbati, La neutralità del porto di Livorno in età medicea, 72.
- 23.
On the importance of Vattel’s ideas in the theoretical context of relations between great powers and small states, see Maurizio Bazzoli, Il piccolo Stato nell’età moderna. Studi su un concetto della politica internazionale tra XVI e XVIII secolo (Milan: Jaca Book, 1990), 61–62.
- 24.
Koen Stapelbroek, “Universal Society, Commerce and the Rights of Neutral Trade: Martin Hübner, Emer de Vattel and Ferdinando Galiani”, Universalism in international law and political philosophy, ed. P. Korkman and V. Mäkinen (Helsinki: Collegium for Advanced Studies, 2008), 63–89.
- 25.
Vattel, Droit des gens, Preface, xxiii.
- 26.
Vattel, Droit des gens, Preface, xxv–xxvi.
- 27.
Annalisa Biagianti, “La biblioteca dell’Ofizio sopra le differenze”, Le mura e l’Europa. Aspetti della politica estera della Repubblica di Lucca (1500–1799), ed. Renzo Sabbatini (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2012), 102–103.
- 28.
Rodolfo Savelli, “Giuristi francesi, biblioteche italiane. Prime note sul problema della circolazione della letteratura giuridica in età moderna”, Manoscritti, editoria e biblioteche dal Medio Evo all’Età contemporanea, ed. Mario Ascheri and Gaetano Colli (Rome: Roma nel Rinascimento, 2006), 1239–1270.
- 29.
These were collections of printed documents, mostly from the eighteenth century, containing an immense number of legal judgments. Among the libraries that retain the greatest number of volumes are the university library, the library of the Società ligure di storia patria, that of the Storia del diritto and of the Biblioteca civica Berio. A project to develop an inventory has been pursued by Rodolfo Savelli, who I thank for having provided me with valuable indications. On the Allegazioni relating to Milan: Maria Gigliola Di Renzo Villata, “L’arte del difendere e l’allegare tra Ancien Régime ed età dei codici”, L’arte del difendere. Allegazioni, avvocati e storie di vita a Milano tra Sette e Ottocento, ed. Maria Gigliola Di Renzo Villata (Milan: Giuffrè, 2006), 1–117.
- 30.
On the Conservatori del Mare I refer the reader to Luca Lo Basso, “Lavoro marittimo, tutela istituzionale e conflittualità sociale a bordo dei bastimenti della Repubblica di Genova nel XVIII secolo”, Mediterranea. Ricerche storiche 12 (2015), 147–168.
- 31.
ASG, Archivio segreto 1715, Consulenza richiesta dalla Giunta di Marina, s.d.
- 32.
ASG, Archivio segreto 2692 and 2693, the letters of the consul Giovanni Antonio Gavi of Livorno; ASG, Archivio segreto 2701, the letters of the consuls Tommaso Fortini (Longone) and Giandomenico Regis (Piombino). See also Emiliano Beri, “‘Contrabbandieri, pirati e ladri di mare’. Bonifacini e napoletani nella marina di Pasquale Paoli (1756–1768)”, Società e storia 34 (2011), 249–276.
- 33.
ASG, Archivio segreto 1715, Consulenza richiesta dalla Giunta di Marina, n.d.
- 34.
Ibid.
- 35.
Ibid.
- 36.
Trampus, Il ruolo del traduttore nel tardo Illuminismo, 83.
- 37.
Eric Schnakenbourg, Entre la guerre et la paix. Neutralité et relations internationales, XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles (Rennes: Presses Univeritaires de Rennes, 2013).
- 38.
The work of Hübner De la saisie de les bâtimens neutres, ou du droit qu’ont les nations belligérant d’arrêter les navires des peuples amis was published in 1759 and, much like the Droit des gens, returned to relevance at the outbreak of the War of the American Independence. The Genoese translation of 1778 is entitled: Del sequestro dei bastimenti neutrali, ovvero del diritto che hanno le nazioni belligeranti d’arrestare i bastimenti de’ popoli amici.
- 39.
ASG, Archivio segreto 1733, Deposizioni raccolte presso l’Ufficio di Sanità, 21 July 1781.
- 40.
Ivi, Consulto di Agostino Queirolo, 12 September 1781.
- 41.
Ivi, 21 July 1781.
- 42.
Ivi, 12 September 1781.
- 43.
On De Felice: Giulietta Pejrone, “De Felice, Francesco Placido Bartolomeo”, Dizionario biografico degli italiani (Rome: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia italiana, 1988), vol. 33; Franco Venturi, Settecento riformatore, I. Da Muratori a Beccaria (Turin: Einaudi, 1969), 549–552; and Stefano Ferrari, La conversione ‘filosofica’ di Fortunato Bartolomeo De Felice, Illuminismo e protestantesimo, ed. Giulia Cantarutti and Stefano Ferrari (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2010), 87–106.
- 44.
I have taken this suggestive comparison between the ideas of Bodin and Vattel from Bazzoli, Il piccolo Stato nell’età moderna, 61–62.
- 45.
Vattel, Droit des gens, book I, Preliminaries, par. 18.
- 46.
Ibid., par. 9.
- 47.
Angiolini, “From the Neutrality of the Port to the Neutrality of the State”, 91–92. See also Andrea Addobbati, “Una nuova lettura del Dei doveri dei principi neutrali di Ferdinando Galiani”, Traffici commerciali, sicurezza marittima, guerra di corsa. Il Mediterraneo e l’Ordine di Santo Stefano, ed. Marco Cini (Pisa: Edizioni Ets, 2011), 183–192.
- 48.
Ferdinando Galiani, De’ doveri de’ principi neutrali (Naples: 1782), vol. I, 9.
- 49.
Vattel, Droit des gens, book III, par. 118.
- 50.
A copy of the edict of 1 August 1778 can be found in TNA, State papers foreign, 98/82.
- 51.
The law of neutrality emanated shortly before was immediately transmitted by the authorities of the Grand Duchy to the consuls of foreign countries. The Genoese consul Giovanni Antonio Gavi passed the news onto the Republic. ASG, Archivio segreto 2694, 5 August 1778.
- 52.
A printed copy of the law of neutrality of 1 July 1779 can be found in TNA, Foreign Office, 28/1.
- 53.
TNA, State papers foreign, 98/82, article XVI.
- 54.
ASG, Archivio segreto 1733, s.d. (August 1781).
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Pedemonte, D. (2019). Vattel in the Republic of Genoa: Between Theory and Practice. In: Stapelbroek, K., Trampus, A. (eds) The Legacy of Vattel's Droit des gens. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23838-4_8
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