I think you can get something similar now with C++20 concepts? template<typename T, typename U> void my_func(std::vector<T>* vec) requires std::derived

I think you can get something similar now with C++20 concepts? template<typename T, typename U> void my_func(std::vector<T>* vec) requires std::derived_from<T, my_data_container<U>>; (Probably mangled something, but the idea is there) Without concepts, you're left with SINFAE: template<typename T, typename U, typename = std::enable_if_t<std::is_base_of_v<my_data_container<U>, T>>> void my_func(std::vector<T>* vec); or just a regular function and a hope that anything wrong will be caught by the compiler: template<typename T, typename U> void my_func(std::vector<T>* vec) { // use my_data_container<U> somewhere and hope things blow up if something is wrong // Not 100% sure this is allowed, but something similar should be at least }