Balance of Power and Norm Hierarchy: Franco-British Diplomacy after the Peace of Utrecht -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- List of Abbreviations -- 1: Introduction -- 1 A Theoretical Assessment -- I Practical Legal Argumentation: A Research Gap? -- II International Order: Balance of Power -- III Normativity: Law as Interaction in the Society of States -- 2 Practical Argumentation in the "Trente Heureuses", to the image of Rousset de Missy -- 3 Sources and Methodology -- I Sources -- II Methodology -- 2: The System of Stanhope and Dubois (1717-1723) -- 1 Post Utrecht -- I The trouble European waters of 1715 -- II "Les petites choses qu'il faut perdre pour avoir les grandes": the Birth of a System -- 2 Shock Absorption: The War of the Quadruple Alliance -- I Italy Reconfigured -- II "À proportion que la peur de l'Espagne diminuë, la jalousie de l'Empereur augmente": Waiting for Alberoni's exit -- III Shedding the Sun King and Marlborough's Debts, Unsettling the Ministry: The West and South Companies -- 3 Epilogue -- I Saint-Simon's mission to Spain -- II Walpole and Fleury -- III The End of the Regency -- 3: Stanhope and Dubois's Diplomatic Legacy -- 1 The Cambrai Conference (1722-1725) -- I Congress Dynamics -- II The Slow Transformation to Failure -- 2 Cambrai Derailed: The Multilateral Essence of the Ostend Company and the Pragmatic Sanction -- I The Ostend Company -- II The Pragmatic Sanction -- 3 Epilogue: The Triumph of Avoidant Behaviour (1725-1731) -- I Threats, Intimidation and Betrayal: From Herrenhausen to Wusterhausen -- II Winding The Clock Back to 1720 -- 4: Jealousy and Misunderstandings? The Disintegration of the European System (1731-1740) -- 1 Who Gives the Law to Europe? The Repercussions of Britain's Cavalier Seul -- I The Treaty of Vienna (16 March 1731) and Its Consequences.

II Trade and Colonial Issues, Thermometer of the Franco-British Relation -- III Elisabeth Farnese's Italian Dream -- 2 The Polish Question -- I "Il nous faut la Lorraine": Stanislas as Useful Father-in-Law -- II The Maritime Powers Sidelined -- 3 "Setting a New Balance in Europe": Separate and Thus Different Strategies -- I "He Can Tell an Egregious Lye with a Better Grace than Any body": Fleury With Gloves On -- II Britain, a Blue-Water Power -- III Epilogue -- 5: Conclusion -- 1 The Functions of International Law -- I International Law, or a Law of Self-Subjected Actor-Legislators -- II Absence of Authority: Big Power Law or the Bulwark of Smaller States? -- III The Rhetorical Use of International Law -- 2 Results -- Chronology -- Simplified Genealogies -- Sources -- Bibliography -- Index.