Jean Rousset de Missy and les Intérêts présens des puissances de l’Europe: territory, sovereignty and practical legal argumentation
Jean Rousset de Missy et les Intérêts présens des puissances de l’Europe: territoires, souveraineté et argumentation juridique pratique
Résumé
Known as a journalist or 'compiler', Jean Rousset de Missy (1682-1762) contributed on the to the world's first treaty collections, the Corps Universel Diplomatique du Droit des Gens (1726-1731, edited by Jean Dumont). This contribution focuses on Les Intérêts présens des puissances de l'Europe (1733), a two-volume work published to serve as a practical alternative to the 8 volumes in-f° of the Corps Universel. Rousset discusses treaty obligations undertaken by sovereign entities, and links them up with an analysis of their long-term geopolitical interests. I sketch the impact of the Peace Treaties of Utrecht (1713) on Rousset's work, and argue that his treatment of the matter gives a unique insight into argumentative strategies. Parties in a quarrel use arguments drawn from the law of nature, Roman law, canon law, customary law, feudal law or domestic law, and only seldom refer to law of nations doctrine. Rousset's synthesis at the end of every section is representative of diplomatic practice in his time. Treaties contained political compromises. In order to be effective, they needed precedence over domestic norms. In a final section, I examine Rousset's treatment of Savoy and Spain after 1713.
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