Putting Nature and Nations Asunder 173or “the eff ect... actually produced” by the law, it could be called public be-
cause it dealt with “the public aff airs” of the nations of the world. Consid-
ered from the standpoint of how the law was made, however, it is best re-
garded as private, since it is the same pro cess, in essence, by which private
individuals enter into agreements with one another— and thereby create le-
gal rights and duties by their own initiative— in their ordinary aff airs.
A variant form of the Grotian dualistic position was presented by the Ger-
man writer Johann Wolfgang Weber— or Textor as he is more commonly
known, from the Latin translation of his surname (“weaver”). He was from
a distinguished family in the small German state of Neuenstein, where he
served as director of the Chancellery. In 1666– 90, he taught law, fi rst as pro-
fessor of Roman law at the University of Altdorf, and then as professor of
general jurisprudence at the University of Heidelberg (the fi rst person to hold
that post). He then served as an elected offi cial in Frankfurt until his death.
He wrote on many subjects, but his principal contribution to international
law was his Synopsis of the Law of Nations, published in 1680 during his pe-
riod at Heidelberg.
Textor followed Grotius in distinguishing natural law from the law of na-
tions. Natural law “issues direct from Natural Reason,” while the law of na-
tions “issues through the medium of international usage.” Th e law of na-
tions, he asserted, is “strictly Customary.” As such, it is changeable. Textor
also followed Grotius in carefully insisting that this body of law is not based
on bare usage alone, that is, on a pattern of unilateral acts by states. It is
necessary, in addition, that the practice or usage of states be founded upon
“a mutually obligatory consent.”Th e Naturalists
In conscious contrast to the Grotians were the naturalists. Th e essence of
the naturalist position was that the law of nature is the only general law gov-
erning relations between sovereign states. Th is core tenet was succinctly
stated by Hobbes:
As for the law of nations, it is the same [as] the law of nature. For that
which is the law of nature between man and man, before the constitu-
tion of the commonwealth, is the law of nations between sovereign and
sovereign, aft er.