Interstate Commerce and the Principles of the Law of Nations

Given recent trends in the Supreme Court's jurisprudence, the original meaning of the Commerce Clause is likely to be the subject of continuing debate. As the Court struggles to provide meaningful boundaries on congressional regulatory power under the Clause, it has revisited the history of the Clause and its original meaning. One potentially valuable source for insights into the original meaning of the Clause is the body of contemporaneous work on international law. Writers such as Vattel had developed an extensive analysis of the relations among sovereign states in the international system.

These writers were influential and well-known to the Founding Generation.