To Consent or Revolt? European Public Law, the Three Partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, and 1795) and the Birth of National Self-Determination

Abstract

Reflecting on events in the eighteenth century, the American jurist Henry Wheaton referred to the partitions of Poland as ‘the most flagrant violation of natural justice and international law’ which had occurred ‘since Europe first emerged from barbarism’. This was a view with which William Hall concurred, calling the partition an ‘immoral act of appropriation’ whilst Thomas Lawrence thought it was ‘so full of evil’ that it found ‘no warrant in international law’. In France, Henry Bonfils and Paul Fauchille held a similar view, calling the partitions ‘ce grand crime politique’. Robert Redslob also condemned the partitions of Poland and referred to them as a bloody assault on the rights of man and as an insult which had been characterized by a spirit of cynicism. As these views might indicate it would be difficult to find an international lawyer writing in the centuries following those partitions who held a favourable view of what happened. And yet in the eighteenth century few had complained during the attempt to partition the Spanish Empire (in 1698 and 1700) or when Poland was first partitioned (in 1772). What brought about this change in opinion?