It is sometimes thought that the United States has always been inimical to international law. However, in The Law of Nations in Early American Foreign Policy, Willem Theo Oosterveld demonstrates that at the time of the Founding Fathers, this was far from the case. In fact, in their relations with the European powers, the generation of Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton and Adams sought to bolster international law, and used the great treatises of international law as ‘bibles of statecraft.’
A mostly neglected aspect in the historiography of the early republic, the central argument of this book is that international law was an integral part of the Revolutionary creed. But where the Founders were progressive if not reformist in their interpretations of international law at sea, they drew upon older notions of conquest when it came to territorial expansion.
Taking the reader from colonial debates about the law of nations to the discussions about slavery in the early 19th century, the book highlights the deep ambiguities and sometimes personal struggles that arose when applying international law. With that, it reflects in various ways on contemporary debates on the role of the United States in the international legal order.
The book can be ordered through Brill publishers
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