From the Celebrated Four-language Edition of the Nakaz. A major document of the Enlightenment, the Nakaz, or Instruction, composed by Catherine the Great served to guide the assembly summoned in 1766 to draft a new code of laws for the Russian Empire. Drawn from Montesquieu, Rousseau, and other Enlightenment thinkers, the Nakaz condemned torture and capital punishment and endorsed such principles as the equality of all before the law. Published in the principal European tongues, it proved to be a statement to the world as much as a practical legal text. The present edition contains the Russian, French, German, Latin, and two contemporary English translations, biographical notes, and a bibliography. William E. Butler is the John Edward Fowler Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Vinogradoff Institute at the Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law and Emeritus Professor of Comparative Law at University College London; Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. Vladimir A. Tomsinov is the Head of the Chair of the History of State and Law, Moscow Lomonosov State University.

The first English translation of De Jure Belli et Pacis Libre Tres (by Clement Barksdale). In this momentous work Grotius describes situations in which war is a valid tool of law enforcement and outlines principles for the use of force. Though based on Christian natural law, Grotius advances the novel argument that his system would still be valid if it lacked a divine basis. In this regard he points to the future by moving international law in a secular direction. This 1655 edition is the first English translation of De Jure Belli et Pacis Libre Tres (1625). Barksdale's edition "is perceived to be part of a larger movement in England aimed partly at setting out an ideological alternative to reformation proposals under discussion and to clarifying the relations between civil and ecclesiastical authority in England" (Butler, xii). "Barksdale became a veritable "Grotian" factory, the full measure of which has never been appreciated." --WILLIAM E. BUTLER, xii HUGO GROTIUS 1583-1645], a pre-eminent contributor to international legal doctrine, was an influential Dutch jurist, philosopher and theologian. Grotius is also known for Mare Liberum (1609), which argues against territorial sovereignty of the seas.

One of the greatest figures in modern international law, James Brown Scott 1866-1943] intended to publish an autobiography titled Adventures in Internationalism. He wrote a few paragraphs for this book, but he never completed it. He decided instead to entrust his life's story to George A. Finch, a protege and friend. Finch began work on a biography with Scott's participation in the late 1930s, but he never completed it. Using Finch's manuscripts and notes Butler has produced a compelling study of Scott's key role in the international law movement, participation in several important diplomatic conferences and work as an author, secretary of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and guiding force behind the American Society of International Law. " Scott] fathered and fostered the development of international law during the greatest period of its history." --Manley O. Hudson, Harvard Alumni Bulletin XXXIII No. 14 (1 January 1931) 419. George A. Finch 1884-1957] was James Brown Scott's assistant and literary executor. He served as assistant director of the Division of International Law at the Carnegie Endowment, and, upon Dr. Scott's retirement, became that division's secretary and director. He was president of the Inter-American Academy of International and Comparative Law and held several positions at the American Society of International Law. At the time of his death he was honorary vice-president of the society and the honorary editor of its journal. He was the author of The Sources of Modern International Law (1937). William E. Butler is the John Edward Fowler Distinguished Professor of Law at Penn State University's Dickinson School of Law. He is the preeminent authority on the law of Russia and other former Soviet republics and the author, co-author, editor, or translator of more than 120 books on Soviet, Russian, Ukrainian and other Commonwealth of Independent States legal systems. Professor Emeritus of Comparative Law at the University of London, Professor Butler is the founder and director of The Vinogradoff Institute, which operates as a unit of Penn State Dickinson. The recipient of numerous honors for his service to Russian and international law, Professor Butler is an Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and is serving his third term as a member of the Russian International Court of Commercial Arbitration.

The First English-Language Treatise on Consular Law. Warden's was the first English-language treatise on consular law and one of the earliest workson the subject. Both a descriptive and prescriptive work, it outlines the ideal qualities of a consul, his role in diplomatic relations and legal status and a review of consular treaties in force at the time. Highly regarded in its day, it was translated into French, the language of nineteenth-century diplomacy, and circulated widely among diplomatic circles. A scarce work today, our edition is enhanced by Professor Butler's extensive introduction, which examines the historical context of this book and the life of its author. David Bailie Warden 1772-1845], an Irish-born American diplomat, was distinguished for his scientific attainments and varied learning. A member of the French Academy and other prestigious learned societies, he was secretary of the United States Legation to France, agent of prize causes, and for many years the United States consul in Paris. "Consular law, it is widely believed, is among the most venerable of the institutes of the law of nations and an early example, in State practice and doctrinal form, of the comparative investigation and analysis of State practice in the form of treaties, national legislation, and judicial application."--William E. Butler, iv

Pavil Gavrilovich, later Sir Paul, Vinogradoff [1854-1925] is well known in Russia principally as a historian and abroad as a legal historian and comparative lawyer. Few in either Russia or abroad are aware that Vinogradoff also wrote on public international law. This volume collects four of his most important contributions to this field: The Legal and Political Aspects of the League of Nations (1918), The Reality of the League of Nations (c. 1919), The Covenant of the League: Great and Small Powers (1919) and History of the Law of Nations, a series of six lectures delivered at the University of Leiden in 1921.

With a preface by Michael H. Hoeflich, John H. & John M. Kane Professor of Law, University of Kansas School of Law and an introduction by William E. Butler, John Edward Fowler Distinguished Professor of Law, Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law and Emeritus Professor of Comparative Law at University College London; Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Includes the text of Vol. 1, No. 1 (Oct. 21, 1876) to Vol. 1, No. 26 (April 14, 1877), originally published: St. Paul, Minn.: J.B. West & Co. 1876-1877. "In 1876, John B. West, twenty-four years old, launched a new publication that would within a decade evolve into the National Reporter System. As a traveling salesman for an office supply company in St. Paul, young West visited many Minnesota attorneys. He learned that the official publishers of court reports were chronically slow. West was later to say that if the official state publishers had been properly doing their jobs there would have been no need for his reporters. His first publication, The Syllabi was an eight-page weekly news-sheet that contained "prompt and reliable intelligence as to the various questions adjudicated by the Minnesota Courts at a date long prior to the publication of the State Reports." Its immediate popularity among the bar soon forced it to outgrow its original format and coverage. In early 1877, only six months after it had begun, The Syllabi was replaced by the North-Western Reporter. The reporter, another weekly, was also a transitional publication. It contained the full text of all Minnesota Supreme Court decisions and Minnesota federal court decisions, as well as those from the Wisconsin Supreme Court in cases "of special importance." This publication lasted two years, four semi-annual volumes. In 1879, West announced a new series of the North Western Reporter (the first of the modern West regional reporters) that would publish the full text of all current supreme court decisions from Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and the Dakota Territory. The Federal Reporter and the Supreme Court Reporter began within the next two years and, in 1885, West Publishing (as it was incorporated in 1882) announced the publication of four new reporters that, along with its current reports, gave it nationwide coverage. (.) The National Reporter System was soon proclaimed to have "Unquestionably revolutionized the whole plan of law reporting." --Thomas A. Woxland & Patti J. Ogden, Landmarks in American Legal Publishing. An Exhibit Catalogue 38-40.

A Documentary History of the Campaign to Create the American Institute of International LawThe American Institute of International Law was established in 1912 by James Brown Scott and Dr. Alejandro Alvarez, a distinguished Chilean international lawyer. It aimed primarily to foster better relations between the United States and Latin America. Active until 1938, it submitted several recommendations concerning international organizations, including 30 draft projects to the Pan American Union, which placed 27 of them before the International Commission of American Jurists for the Codification of International Law. Among the subjects were statehood, aliens, law of treaties, diplomatic and consular agents, neutrality at sea, asylum, duties of states in the event of civil war, and the peaceful settlement of disputes. No less than thirteen of these drafts were incorporated into the codifications produced by the Commission. This volume documents the campaign to create the American Institute of International Law and reproduces the original proposal and the principal documents leading to the creation of the Institute. In a broader sense, it offers an interesting legal perspective on the history of inter-American relations and the period when international lawyers began to influence the direction American of foreign policy.James Brown Scott 1866-1943] played a leading role in the establishment of public international law from the 1890s to the 1940s. The author of over 1,000 books and articles, he was a professor, administrator, editor, public lecturer, as well as a lawyer, diplomat and an advisor to seven presidents, ten secretaries of state and several foreign governments. He was also a tireless organizer. In addition to his leading role in the creation of American Institute of International Law, he helped to establish the American Society for Judicial Settlement of International Disputes and the American Society of International Law (ASIL)."Before Dr. Scott began his crusade, international law as a science had barely emerged from the cloister; indeed, not so many years before it had been taught in connection with theology. The subject is now included in the curricula of many colleges and universities and of the larger law schools in the United States. Specially qualified professors, in the larger institutions more than one, devote their whole time to teaching it. The classes are numbered by the hundreds and the students by the thousands. No statement made by informed leaders of opinion in this and other countries has been or can be made regarding the restoration of peace and order in the world without basing their hopes upon the foundations of international law."George A. Finch, "James Brown Scott, 1866-1943," American Journal of International Law 38 (1944) 217. 38 Am.

REPRINT OF THE RARE EVATS TRANSLATION The second English translation of Hugo Grotius' landmark work, De Jure Belli Ac Pacis (1625), translated by William Evats (c.1606/7-1677) and published in London in 1682. As William E. Butler points out in his introduction to this reprint: "The early English translations of the works of Hugo Grotius on the law of nations are not the product of legal scholars or legal scholarship. We are indebted primarily to theologians for their appearance, either because Grotius figured prominently in theological discourse at various periods after his death or because his legal writings were espoused by dons dedicated to the cause of peace who considered the Grotian contributions to the law of nations to be a constructive step in the direction of a more peaceful world community." --William E. Butler, X HUGO GROTIUS 1583-1645], a pre-eminent contributor to international legal doctrine, was an influential Dutch jurist, philosopher and theologian. His many important works include De Jure Belli ac Pacis The Law of War and Peace] (1625), which is widely considered to be the first master treatise on international law, and Mare Liberum The Freedom of the Seas] (1609), in which he argues against territorial sovereignty of the seas.

This addition to the Elements of International Law series explores the role of international law as an integral part of the Russian legal system, with particular reference to the role of international treaties and of generally-recognized principles and norms of international law. Following a discussion of the historical place of treaties in Russian legal history and the sources of the Russian law of treaties, the book strikes new ground in exploring contemporary treaty-making in the Russian Federation by drawing upon sources not believed to have been previously used in Russian or western doctrinal writings. Special attention is devoted to investment protection treaties. The importance of publishing treaties as a condition of their application by Russian courts is explored. For the first time a detailed account is given of the constitutional history of treaty ratification in Russia, the outcome being that present constitutional practice is inconsistent with the drafting history of the relevant constitutional provisions. The volume gives attention to the role of the Russian Supreme Court in developing treaty practice through the issuance of "guiding documents" binding on lower courts, the reaction of the Russian Constitutional Court to judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, and the place of treaties as an integral part of the Russian legal system. Butler further explores the hierarchy of sources of law, together with other facets of Russian arbitral and judicial practice with respect to treaties and other sources of international law. He concludes with a consideration of the 'generally-recognized principles and norms of international law' and their role as part of the Russian system.

Transcribed by William E. Butler into English for the first time, from Du Ponceau's hand, a translation of Gerard de Rayneval's On the Freedom of the Sea. A previously overlooked and unpublished contemporary translation by Peter S. Du Ponceau of the classic treatise by Joseph-Mathias Gerard de Rayneval, De la liberte des mers (Paris, 1811), edited with an extensive introduction by William E. Butler.
Successor two centuries later to Grotius' classic writings on the freedom of the seas, Gerard de Rayneval's work affirmed the principles of natural and positive law applicable to naval warfare, privateers, the law of prize, the deep seabed and high seas, neutrality, and international straits from a French perspective deeply sympathetic to American views of the time. Gerard de Rayneval cherished the hope that Napoleon might be inspired by the work to draft a code of maritime law. This treatise informed negotiations that led to the 1856 Declaration of Paris and was widely cited by continental jurists during the 19th century.
"Professor William Butler's careful scholarship and clear presentation bring to life an important translation of Gerard de Rayneval's work on the law of the sea, a topic of continuing interest to scholars and mariners alike in the 21st century. Professor Butler's detailed introduction and editing of Du Ponceau's translation offer essential background for familiar maritime concepts and adds richness to the body of work explaining the legal regimes surrounding the use of the world's seas." --James W. Houck Vice Admiral, Judge Advocate General's Corps, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Interim Dean and Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Penn State, The Dickinson School of Law
WILLIAM E. BUTLER is the John Edward Fowler Distinguished Professor of Law, Dickinson School of Law, Pennsylvania State University, Emeritus Professor of Comparative Law, University of London, Foreign Member, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine.
JOSEPH-MATHIAS GERARD DE RAYNEVAL (1736-1812) was First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and an international lawyer. He was a significant mediator in Anglo-French relations who composed an important memorandum of French strategy for secret assistance to the Americans entitled "Reflections on the Situation in America" (1776). He was a key negotiator in the commercial Eden Treaty (1786), which was signed by him on behalf of France. In 1804 he was awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honor for his contributions to the literature of international law.
PETER STEPHEN DU PONCEAU (1760-1844) was a Franco-American jurist who came to America at the age of 17 and lived in Philadelphia, where he practiced international law until his death. He was president of the American Philosophical Society. In 1810 he published a translation of Bynkershoek's A Treatise on the Law of War.

This volume contains the revisions up to August 15, 1999 to Parts One and Two, often referred to as the "General Part", of the Russian Civil Code. Butler's translation presents a clear interpretation of this text for all involved in Russian legal and commercial matters. As the Russian Civil Code is often the standard model for the other CIS states, amendments to this legislation are important to monitor.

Nowhere today is constitutional law more avidly debated and studied than in the 12 post-Soviet republics known as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Drawing on past experience as well as on European, American and Asian models, the constitutions of these countries have a great deal to tell the legal scholar about how the independent states of the post-Cold-War world understand the transition to a market economy. This text contains English translations which accurately present the current (1999) constitutional laws of all 12 CIS countries. The author and translator - himself active as an adviser on constitutional reform in several of these states - has taken care to establish the most authentic sources through an investigation of the existing documents and through personal interviews. From a great mass of confusing and often contradictory material in a dozen languages, he has assembled a coherent collection of documents that allows us to see the lineaments of constitutional law at a crucial stage of development in this fast-changing region of great economic significance.

Uzbekistan was the first of the CIS countries to formulate and adopt a new Civil Code. The initial Civil Code came into force on March 1, 1997. Although based largely on the Russian Civil Code, the Uzbekistan Code has evolved its own distinct characteristics. This edition of William E. Butler's translation contains the latest revisions up to August 15, 1999.