G. F. de Martens on Asian Treaty Practice (1964)

This chapter examines the works of Georg Friedrich von [de] Martens in relation to Asian treaty practices. These include his principal treatise, the Précis du Droit des Gens Modernes de l’Europe fondé sur les traités et l’usage (1789); Cours Diplomatique ou Tableau des Relations extérieures des Puissances de l’Europe tant entre elles qu’avec d’autres états dans les diverses parties du globe; and Recueil des Traités. The interrelationship between these three works has been largely ignored by historians of the law of nations and deserves careful attention. While Martens does not draw any specific conclusions from the Asian treaty material which he had collected and included in his works, the material suggests compelling reasons for conceiving the existence of a fairly wide meeting ground on which European and Asian countries were not only able to engage in trade but also to exchange cultural values and legal ideas.