ORLY? Check out Article I, Section 8, Clause 10 'Law of Nations'
MamaTexan:
The actual text of Article I, Section 8, Clause 10 of the Constitution says:
The Congress shall have Power... To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations...
The "law of nations" was NOT simply defined by Vattel. Although he was an influential writer on the subject, there were a bunch of others.
The reference to the "law of nations" in the Constitution is a reference to the law of nations. It is NOT a reference to Vattel's book on the topic.
In fact, the Constitution speaks of "OFFENSES AGAINST THE LAW OF NATIONS."
Did you know there was another book, FAR more widely read and used than Vattel, that has a chapter on precisely that topic, with a title that is almost verbatim to the phrase as used in the Constitution?
The author was quoted by the Founding Fathers SIXTEEN TIMES more often than they quoted Vattel.
And his book's chapter is titled, "OF OFFENSES AGAINST THE LAW OF NATIONS."
That being the case, would you not agree that this book, and not Vattel's, is likely the source of the phrase as used in our Constitution?
Can you show where the notably thrify Founders spend precious public funds to purchase his work for use in the Senate?
From the Library of Congress-
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsj&fileName=002/llsj002.db&recNum=42&itemLink=D?hlaw:13:./temp/~ammem_LF5V::%230020043&linkText=1
Ordered, That the Secretary purchase Blackstone's Commentaries, and Vattel's Law of Nature and Nations, for the use of the Senate.
Journal of the Senate of the United States of America / Monday / March 10, 1794 / Volume 2 / page 44