In the same year Vattel repaired to Berlin in the hope of obtaining some public employment from Frederick II, but was disappointed in his expectation.

[4] Vattel's seminal work was largely influenced by a book titled Jus Gentium Methodo Scientifica Pertractum (The Law of Nations According to the Scientific Method) by Christian Wolff.

Focused largely on the rights and obligations of citizens and states, Vattel's work also had ramifications for Just War Theory as it outlined international diplomacy as we now know it.

Dumas sent Benjamin Franklin three original French copies of de Vattel's Le droit des gens (The Law of Nations).

On December 9, 1775, Franklin thanked Dumas: [8] It came to us in good season, when the circumstances of a rising State make it necessary to frequently consult the Law of Nations.Franklin also said that this book by Vattel, "has been continually in the hands of the members of our Congress now sitting".

When the staff of the Washington museum at Mount Vernon heard about the overdue books, they were unable to locate them, but purchased a second copy of the de Vattel work for US$12,000.

[3] Vattel was one of a number of 18th century European scholars who wrote on international law and were "well known in America" at the time, including Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, Cornelius van Bynkershoek, Hugo Grotius, Samuel von Pufendorf, Thomas Rutherforth, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Christian Wolff.

Vattel is cited after Hugo Grotius and before Francis Lieber and Hersch Lauterpacht as a subsidiary means and an authority in determining the rules of law of war.