Jean Rousset de Missy

Jean Rousset de Missy (Laon, 26 August 1686–Uithoorn?, 13 August, 1762) was a French Huguenot writer, from early in life in the Netherlands. He was a renowned historian and author on international law and a prolific journalist. Born in Laon from Protestant parents (Jean Rousset and Rachel Cottin), he studied at the Collège du Plessis in Paris. After a conflict with his stepmother he joined the Dutch States Army during the War of the Spanish Succession and was present at the Battle of Malplaquet (1709). In 1724 (after having founded and led a school for aristocratic boys in The Hague), he started his activities as a professional journalist.

He worked together with Jean Dumont de Carelskroon (1667–1727), jurist of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, and author of the Corps Universel Diplomatique du Droit des Gens, to which he published an addition in 1739.

Rousset's Recueil historique and Intérêts presens were the international reference works for contemporary diplomats. Rousset emphasized the importance of voluntary, or secondary international law: by contracting treaties, monarchs, republics and cities constantly amended, altered or created international law. As natural law (the "first" pillar) was concerned, Rousset referred to the 17th Century theorists Hugo Grotius and Samuel Pufendorf. For Rousset, his task in assembling formal acts was to give insight to the rulers and their advisers. As he stated in the foreword to his 1733 Intérêts presens:

Doing so, Rousset believed disputes between sovereigns could be settled by established procedures, following both older (Westphalia, Oliva, Golden Bul) and newer treaties (e.g. the 1713 Peace of Utrecht). War could thus be avoided by taking the road of informal and alternative dispute settlement mechanisms. In this, Rousset followed the established policy of French Prime Minister André-Hercule de Fleury (1653–1743) and British Prime Minister Robert Walpole (1676–1745), who already continued the views of the French Regent, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, his minister Guillaume Dubois (both + 1723) and the British minister James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope (+1721).

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