The Elements of International Law

Abstract

Henry Wheaton is the Blackstone of international law. By giving lawyers a simple, clear and convincing description of international law, as he understood it, Wheaton shaped the law of nations for his contemporaries, and their successors for at least half a century after his death. Wheaton’s Elements of International Law, first published in 1836, went through many editions, culminating in the canonical eighth edition, with notes by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., published in 1866. Dana’s became the most frequently cited version, and was selected by the Carnegie Endowment for reproduction in its series on the Classics of International Law. Wheaton’s Elements of lnternational Law presents the classic statement of international law doctrine, as it was understood for most of the nineteenth century.