We [hoped]… that the Congress would crown its labors, by substituting for [the territorial state's] fleeting alliances (the result of necessities and momentary calculations) a permanent system of universal guarantees and general equilibrium… [T]he order established in Europe would be placed under the perpetual protection of all the parties interested, who by wisely concerted plans, or by sincerely united efforts, would crush at the outset, any attempt to compromise it.47
The constitutional order created by the five powers and ratified by the Congress embraced several treaties: the Treaty of Chaumont—which, by binding the parties to pursue victory despite tempting French offers of advantageous individual peace settlements, was the key to all that followed—the first Treaty of Paris, the second Treaty of Paris (which followed Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo), and the Final Act at Vienna. Pursuant to that system, further treaties were made—notably the Holy Alliance and the Quadruple Alliance—and further congresses were held, at Aix-la-Chapelle (1818), Troppau (1820), Laibach (1820), and Verona (1822), which attempted to apply the arrangements earlier agreed upon. This system of congresses soon proved logistically cumbersome, however, and for most of the life of the Constitution of Vienna, informal meetings of the directorate replaced grand convocations. This directorate, acting on behalf of the Concert of Europe, set frontiers, recognized states, resolved crises, and declared new rules of international law. If the role of the ratifying congresses was erased, however, what gave the great powers the right to promulgate new law?
Two answers were given by remarkable nineteenth century figures whose contributions to jurisprudence have left an important legacy, even if the international form with which they were concerned—the society of state-nations—has disappeared. Both men were law professors, but otherwise the careers of John Austin and Johann Bluntschli could not have been more different.