CONFERENCE PAPER: Jean Rousset de Missy’s Les Intérêts présens de l’Europe (1733) as a political and legal mirror of diplomacy between sovereigns VIIth Splendid Encounters of the Premodern Diplomats Network: Conflict Resolution in Europe, 1300-1800] (Vilnius: Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, 27-28 SEP 2018)

(image source: Premodern Diplomats Network)

Abstract:

International relations after the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) were characterized by a quest for interpretation of the agreement that had brought the conflict to an end. Franco-British understanding made the end of the conflict possible.[1] Yet, could this be lasting? France and Britain were geopolitical competitors. Moreover, the cornerstone of the agreement was the renunciation of Philip V of Spain to his hereditary rights to the French throne, in order to safeguard the balance of power in Europe[2]. Its solidity depended, in practice, on the willingness of the French court to prefer treaties over the lois fondamentales (fundamental laws or unwritten principles of constitutional order). Finally, the treaties concluded in April 1713 (Utrecht), March 1714 (Rastatt) and September 1714 (Baden) left many questions unanswered, especially in case new succession quarrels would pop up. Diplomats had recourse to legal advisers, treaty collections and doctrine, and gradually instated a system whereby the peace treaties of 1713-1714 became a blueprint to solve new quarrels.[3]Les intérêts présens de l’Europe (1733, 1735, 1741)[4] by the Huguenot Jean Rousset de Missy (1686-1762), a two-volume collection of pretentions and published legal documents dedicated to the House of Orange, presents a precious mirror of past, pending and potential new quarrels between European sovereigns.  Together with Jean Du Mont (1666-1727), Rousset was involved in the Corps universel diplomatique du droit des gens (1726-1731),[5] the most illustrious early modern collection of treaties between sovereigns and other legally relevant material.  Rousset’s collection is inspired on Schweder’s Theatrum Historicum Praetensionum (1727) initiated by Christoph Hermann Schweder and continued by Adam Friedrich Glafey (1692-1753), professor of the law of nations in Saxony[6], but merits more than a mere mention as a copy.
Rousset’s work is presented as a princely education manual, to introduce the young William Friso (1711-1751), who would become stadholder in 1747. Rousset presents not just the “interêts & Prétensions des Puissances de l’Europe », but foremost in a rigorous analysis, « examinées avec soin, d’après les Preuves tirées des Traitéz & des Ecrits publiez pour les soûtenir. » Rousset staunchly defended the diplomacy of the French Regent, Philip of Orléans (1715-1723). Orléans chose to continue the Franco-British alliance. He went to war against Philip V of Spain[7]. Rousset regularly indulges in political advice, conformably to his numerous journalistic writings.[8] This first layer of interpretation would do no justice to the intellectual complexity of Rousset’s work. Rousset synthetizes arguments on both, or all sides in succession quarrels, territorial disputes or debates on overlordship. This sticks closely to the practical operation of diplomacy in his age. Only arguments acceptable to one’s interlocutor could truly constitute a part of the law of nations applied between sovereigns, from the pope and the emperor to the republic of Venice and Genoa. Jean Rousset de Missy juggles with roman law, canon law, the law of nations, treaties, custom, feudal law, constitutional law, succession pacts or imperial law.[9] His powerful and rich analysis combines the chessboard of European sovereigns with the argumentative positions. Rousset unites geopolitical interest and law as a system of legitimacy, exceeding by far a listing exercise of the Intérêts and their Preuves.
 

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[1] Lucien Bély, Espions et Ambassadeurs Au Temps de Louis XIV, ed. by Daniel Roche (Paris: Fayard, 1990).[2] Frederik Dhondt, ‘La Société Des Princes et Le Droit Des Gens. Réflexions Sur La Hiérarchie Des Normes et Les Lois Fondamentales Du Royaume Autour Des Renonciations de Philippe V d’Espagne (1712-1713)’, in Penser l’ordre Juridique Médiéval et Moderne. Regards Croisés Sur Les Méthodes Des Juristes, ed. by Nicolas Laurent-Bonne and Xavier Prévost, Contextes - Culture Du Droit (Paris: Lextenso/LGDJ, 2016), pp. 83–109.[3] Frederik Dhondt, Balance of Power and Norm Hierarchy. Franco-British Diplomacy after the Peace of Utrecht, Legal History Library, 17; Studies in the History of International Law, 7, 7 (Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff/Brill, 2015) .[4] Jean Rousset de Missy, Les Intérêts Présens Des Puissances de l’Europe, Fondez Sur Les Traitez Conclus Depuis La Paix d’Utrecht Inclusivement, & Sur Les Preuves de Leurs Prétentions Particulieres (La Haye: Adrien Moetjens, 1733).[5] Jean Dumont, Corps Universel Diplomatique Du Droit Des Gens, 8 vols (Amsterdam/The Hague: Brunel, Wetstein, L’Honoré & Chatelain/Husson & Levrier, 1726).[6] Frank-Steffen Schmidt, Praktisches Naturrecht Zwischen Thomasius Und Wolff: Der Völkerrechtler Adam Friedrich Glafey (1692-1753), Studien Zur Geschichte Des Völkerrechts; 12 (Baden: Nomos Verlag, 2007).[7] Frederik Dhondt, ‘“Arrestez et Pillez Contre Toute Sorte de Droit ”: Trade and the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718-1720)’, Legatio: The Journal for Renaissance and Early Modern Diplomatic Studies, I (2017), 128–62 .[8]Marion Brétéché, Les Compagnons de Mercure : Journalisme et Politique Dans l’Europe de Louis XIV, Époques (Ceyzérieu: Champ Vallon, 2015).[9] Tamar Herzog, A Short History of European Law: The Last Two and a Half Millennia (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2018).

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