CHAPTER: Frederik DHONDT, “Les Intérêts présens des puissances de l'Europe de Jean Rousset de Missy (1733): Territoires, souveraineté et argumentation juridique pratique”, in Pascal HEPNER, Tanguy LE MARC’HADOUR & Christian PFISTER-LANGANAY (dir.), Construire et déconstuire les territoires de l'Antiquité à nos jours. Actes des journées internationales tenues à Arras les 11 et 12 mai 2018 [Société d’Histoire du Droit et des Institutions des Pays Flamands, Picards et Wallons] (Lille: CHJ Éditeur, 2023), 85-116, OPEN ACCESS

Abstract:

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.

Read the chapter (as well as those by Cyril Clerbout, Sébastien Evrard, Maki Fukuda, Pascal Hepner, Felipe Hernandez, Caroline Laske, Tanguy Le Marc’hadour, Paul Van Peteghem and Christian Pfister-Langanay) here: DOI 10.34847/nkl.8cde5896 or below.