Elements of International Law

Elements of International Law, first published in 1836, is a book on international law by Henry Wheaton which has long been influential.[1]

Elements of International Law

Author	Henry Wheaton
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	International Law
Publisher	Carey, Lea and Blanchard
Publication date	1836
OCLC	853812

Elements of International Law
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	萬國公法
Simplified Chinese	万国公法
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wànguó Gōngfǎ Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Maan6 gwok3 Gung1 faat3 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Bān-kok Kong-hoat
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese	Vạn-quốc công-pháp
Korean name
Hangul	만국공법
Hanja	萬國公法
Japanese name
Kanji	万国公法
Kana	ばんこくこうほう
Kyūjitai	萬國公法

Contents

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 (Boston, 1855).[2] 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).[3] Dana's alleged use of Lawrence's notes from the previous editions resulted in a protracted legal controversy.[4][5]

A French translation was published in Leipzig and Paris in 1848. At the instance of Anson Burlingame, 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).[4] The translator was American Protestant missionary William Alexander Parsons Martin who was working in China at that time.[6] The book was also translated into Japanese[4] and the language of each country of Asia.[7]

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.[8]

Influence

The translations had a large influence on the approval of modern international law in Asia.[7] Wheaton's was the first book to introduce international law to East Asia in full scale.[9] In listing Henry Wheaton among "prominent jurists of the nineteenth century," Antony Anghie comments on the "several editions" of Elements of International Law and on the work as "widely respected and used at this time."[10]

References

1. Wheaton, Henry (1836). Elements of International Law; with a Sketch of the History of the Science. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard. Retrieved 27 November 2017 – via Gallica., - via Google Books; Wheaton, Henry (1836). Elements of International Law; with a Sketch of the History of the Science. 1. London: B. Fellowes. Retrieved 4 July 2018 – via Internet Archive.; Wheaton, Henry (1836). Elements of International Law; with a Sketch of the History of the Science. 2. London: B. Fellowes. Retrieved 4 July 2018 – via Google Books.
2. Wheaton, Henry (1855). Elements of International Law; with last corrections of the author, additional notes, and introductory remarks, containing a notice of Mr. Wheaton's diplomatic career, and the antecedents of his life by William Beach Lawrence (6 ed.). Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Retrieved 20 April 2018 – via Internet Archive.
3. Wheaton, Henry (1866). Elements of International Law; edited, with notes, by Richard Henry Dana (8 ed.). Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Retrieved 27 November 2017 – via Internet Archive.
4. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1889). "Wheaton, Henry" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
5.  Ripley, George; Dana, Charles A., eds. (1879). "Wheaton, Henry" . The American Cyclopædia.
6. "William Alexander Parsons Martin". Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity. Archived from the original on 10 June 2012. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
7. "The Cambridge History of English and American Literature". Retrieved 9 September 2010.
8. Janis, Mark W.; Evans, Carolyn, eds. (1999). Religion and international law. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 141. ISBN 978-90-411-1174-6. Wheaton's historical 'Sketch' disappeared in later editions of the Elements but re-emerged in a more comprehensive form in 1845 when Wheaton published his 'History of the Law of Nations in Europe and America; from the Earliest Times to the Treaty of Washington, 1842 (1845) [...]
9. "Treaty as prelude to annexation". Korea Herald. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
10. Anghie, Antony (1999). "Finding the Peripheries: Sovereignty and Colonialism in Nineteenth-Century International Law" (PDF). Harvard International Law Journal. Harvard Law School. 40 (1): 1–71 [8]. ISSN 0017-8063. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 2010-09-11.