''Elements of International Law'', first published in 1836, is a book on

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

Henry Wheaton Henry Wheaton (November 27, 1785 – March 11, 1848) was a United States lawyer, jurist and diplomat. He was the third Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, reporter of decisions for the United States Supreme Court, the ...

which has long been influential.

Textual history

Many translations, editions and reprints of Wheaton's ''Elements'' have appeared since its first publication. The third edition was published in Philadelphia in 1845. At the request of Wheaton's family, the sixth edition, with the last corrections of the author and a biographical notice, was published by

William Beach Lawrence William Beach Lawrence (October 23, 1800 – March 26, 1881) was an American politician and jurist who served as lieutenant governor of Rhode Island from 1851 to 1852 under Governor Philip Allen. Early life Lawrence was born in New York City ...

(Boston, 1855). Lawrence also published the seventh edition (1863). The eight edition was published, with new notes and a new biography, by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (Boston, 1866). Dana's alleged use of Lawrence's notes from the previous editions resulted in a protracted legal controversy. A French translation was published in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1848. At the insistence of

Anson Burlingame Anson Burlingame (November 14, 1820 – February 23, 1870) was an American lawyer, Republican/American Party legislator, diplomat, and abolitionist. As diplomat, he served as the U.S. minister to China (1862–1867) and then as China's envoy to t ...

, U.S. minister to China, Wheaton's book was translated into Chinese and published at the expense of the imperial government (4 vols., Pekin, 1865). The translator was American

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

missionary

William Alexander Parsons Martin William Alexander Parsons Martin (April 10, 1827 – December 18, 1916), also known as Dīng Wěiliáng Lydia H. Liu, ''The Clash of Empires: The invention of China in modern world making'', Harvard University Press, 2004, pp. 113–139 (), was an ...

who was working in China at that time. The book was also translated into Japanese and the language of each country of

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. The original edition bore the title ''Elements of International Law with a Sketch of the History of the Subject''. Some subsequent editions omitted the "Sketch," which in 1845 became (in expanded form) part of Wheaton's ''History of the Law of Nations in Europe and America''.

Influence

The translations had a large influence on the approval of modern international law in Asia. Wheaton's was the first book to introduce international law to

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...

in full scale. In listing Henry Wheaton among "prominent jurists of the nineteenth century,"

Antony Anghie Antony T. Anghie is a law professor at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law and Secretary-General of the Asian Society of International Law. He was previously the Samuel D. Thurman Professor at S. J. Quinney College of Law, Universi ...

comments on the "several editions" of ''Elements of International Law'' and on the work as "widely respected and used at this time."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elements of International Law International law History of East Asia Law books 1830s books History of diplomacy

Contents

Textual history

Influence

References