Commentaries on Law: Embracing Chapters on the Nature, the Source, and the History of Law, on International Law, Public and Private, and on Constitutional and Statutory Law

Wharton's Treatise on the Conflict of Laws (1872) established his reputation in the field of international law. In 1884 he produced his Commentaries on Law, a work encompassing both international and constitutional law. His purpose in publishing this was, as he states simply in the Preface, "to give an exposition of what may be called public law. In the first three chapter are considered successively the nature, the source, and the history of law; and it is maintained that law, as a rule of action, is the product of the conscience and need of the nation by which it is adopted."