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15 - War and the Use of Force in Old Regime Europe

from Part II - International Law in Old Regime Europe (1660–1775)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2025

By
Randall Lesaffer
General editor
Randall Lesaffer
Randall Lesaffer
Affiliation:
KU Leuven and Tilburg University
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Summary

This chapter explores the justification and legitimisation of war and ‘imperfect’ uses of force both in legal scholarship and diplomatic practice. The Grotian synthesis of ‘just’ and ‘formal’ war entered mainstream scholarship and reached its full explanatory force in the work of Vattel. The resilience of just war in the face of its impracticality among sovereign state in scholarship can, among other, be explained by the fact that the subtle interplay of two conceptions of law in fields of legal application - , gelled well with diplomatic practice. Whereas states applied the jus in bello and jus post bellum with regards to claims to the justice of the war, the just war doctrine remained a common discourse for the justification of resort to war and force and added an instrument to the toolbox of alliances diplomacy.

Keywords

Old Regime Europelaw of nationsjus ad bellumjust warformal warGrotiusVattelalliances
Type
Chapter
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The Cambridge History of International Law , pp. 495 - 516
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Further Reading

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Dhondt, Frederik, ‘The law of nations and declarations of war after the Peace of Utrecht’, History of European Ideas, 42 (2016) 329–49.Google Scholar
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