de Vattel: Of Acquisitions by War, and Particularly of Conquests

The Law of Nations or the Principles of Natural Law (1758)Emmerich de Vattel

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Of Acquisitions by War, and Particularly of Conquests§ 193. How war is a method of acquisition.§ 194. Measure of the right it gives.§ 195. Rules of the voluntary law of nations.§ 196. Acquisition of movable property.§ 197. Acquisition of immovables, — or conquest.§ 198. How to transfer them validly.§ 199. Conditions on which a conquered town is acquired.§ 200. Lands of private persons.§ 201. Conquest of the whole state.§ 202. To whom the conquest belongs.§ 203. Whether we are to set at liberty a people whom the enemy had unjustly conquered.
   1. Grotius, de Jure Belli et Pacis, lib. iii. cap. vi. § iii. n. vii.
   2. See Grotius, ibid, and in the text.
   3. Grotius, ibid.
   4. Grotius, lib. iii. cap. xvi.
   5. By the treaty of Schwedt, October 6, 1713.
   6. Inter dominum et servum nulla amicitia est: etiam in pace, belli tamen jura servantur. — Q Curt. lib. vii. cap. viii.
   7. Montesquieu, in his Spirit of Laws.
   8. Quid, si pœnam (inquit consul) remittimus vobis, qualem nos pacem vobiscum habituros speremus? Si bonam dederitis, inquit, et fidam et perpetuam; si malam, haud diuturnam. Tum vero minari, nec id ambigue Privernatem, quidam, et illis vocibus ad rebellandum incitari pacatos populos. Pars melior senatus ad meliora responsa trahere, et dicere viri et liberi vocem auditam: an credi posse ullum populum, aut hominem denique, in ea conditione cujus eum pœniteat, diutius quam necesse sit, mansurum? Ibi pacem esse fidam, ubi voluntarii pacati sint; neque eo loco, ubi servitutem esse velint, fidem sperandam esse. — Tit. Liv. lib viii. cap. xxi.
   9. Certe id firmissimum longe imperium est, quo obdedientes gaudent. — Tit. Liv. lib. viii. cap. xiii.
   10. Histoire de la Confederation Helvetique, par M. de Watteville, liv. iii. under the year 1351.