Charles Guillaume Loys de Bochat was born in Lausanne on December 11, 1695. He began to study theology in 1711 at the University of Basel under Samuel Werenfels (1657-1740). Due to ill health, he returned to Lausanne, where he later studied law under Jean Barbeyrac before moving on to Basel, where he obtained his license in 1717. Against Barbeyrac’s own wish, who attempted to promote Louis Bourguet as his successor, Loys de Bochat obtained the chair of natural law and history in 1718. Thanks to a stipend from the Bernese government, he was able to complete his studies abroad (Germany, Netherlands and France) before he began teaching in Lausanne. He served as rector of the Academy from 1727 to 1730. The project to transform the Academy into a University, which he elaborated together with his friend Gabriel Seigneux de Correvon in 1738, had no favourable reception. Loys de Bochat renounced his chair at the Academy when he was appointed lieutenant baillival (deputy bailiff ) in 1740. He became contrôleur général (general auditor) in 1750.

As a professor, Loys de Bochat became well known for his public courses on history. In 1733, the public course on natural law was replaced by a course on ecclesiastical history. In his private courses, he taught natural and civil law. In addition to his public positions, Loys de Bochat also functioned as one of the main editors of the Bibliothèque italienne ou Histoire littérarie de l’Italie, published in Geneva from 1728 to 1734. He also was an influential member of the Société du compte de la Lippe, a local society founded in 1742 in Lausanne which took care of the education of the young earl Simon August von Lippe-Detmold. He was elected to the Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen in 1751.

Nothing is known about Loys de Bochat’s courses on natural law. As one can gather from several of his activities, he was mainly concerned with questions related to the law of nations and the law of war. In his replies to anonymous critiques of the Swiss practice of mercenary service abroad, published as part of Ouvrages pour et contre les services militaires étrangers, considérés du côté du droit et de la morale (1738), he dealt with the general natural law principles suitable for justifying the Swiss practice. He thereby relied extensively on the natural law literature available on the subject, namely on Gentili, Grotius and Pufendorf, and on a great number of subsequently published treatises on natural law and commentaries on moral and legal questions related to mercenary service abroad. This publication owned him a review by Jean Barbeyrac in the journal Bibliothèque raisonné des ouvrages des savants de l’Europe, published in two parts in 1738-1739. However, the latter does not seem to have held in high esteem his younger colleague (see his letter to La Motte, 15 April 1738). Loys de Bochat also adopted a leading role in a discussion launched by the Société du compte de la Lippe on the balance of power in Europe and the question whether preventive warfare against a neighbouring state which augments its power and threatens weaker states by oppression is legitimate. His interest in the law of nations is further attested by his active involvement in the new Latin edition of Grotius’ De jure belli ac pacis, published in Lausanne in 1751-52, which comprised commentaries of several scholars, notably those of Heinrich Cocceji (1644-1719) and his son Samuel Cocceji (1679-1755).