Some Problems in the History of the Law of Nations in Asia (1963)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. H. Alexandrowicz
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Law

This chapter considers problems in the study of the history of the law of nations in Asia. It argues that international lawyers have focused their attention on the legal aspects of contemporary problems of international relations and politics, and on the operation of tribunals and quasi-tribunals and the case law they produce. Writers of present day treatises of international law devote just a few introductory pages to the history of the subject and these short chapters are often based on similar introductions in nineteenth-century treatises. The chapter discusses some of the elements of legal change in which European–Asian relations played a significant role; the gradual elimination of the natural law outlook by growing European positivism; the principle of universality of the law of nations and the principle of identity of de facto and de jure State sovereignty; and the use of capitulations to delay the ‘entry’ of Asian States into the family of nations.

The Authority of Vattel

1913 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles G. Fenwick
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
The Political ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Law ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
Political Philosopher

There is no more significant commentary on the growth of international law, both in precision and in comprehensiveness, than an estimate of the relative authority of the name of Vattel in the world of international relations a century ago and in that of today. A century ago not even the name of Grotius himself was more potent in its influence upon questions relating to international law than that of Vattel. Vattel's treatise on the law of nations was quoted by judicial tribunals, in speeches before legislative assemblies, and in the decrees and correspondence of executive officials. It was the manual of the student, the reference work of the statesman, and the text from which the political philosopher drew inspiration. Publicists considered it sufficient to cite the authority of Vattel to justify and give conclusiveness and force to statements as to the proper conduct of a state in its international relations.At the present day the name and treatise of Vattel have both passed into the remoter field of the history of international law. It is safe to say that in no modern controversy over the existence and force of an alleged rule of international law would publicists seek to strengthen the position taken by them by quoting the authority of Vattel. As an exposition of the law of nations at a given period of its growth, the work can, it is true, lose nothing of its value, but in saying that it has thus won its place irrevocably among the classics of international law, we are merely repeating that it has lost its value as a treatise on the law of the present day.

Hobbes among the Classic Jurists

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Boucher
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Law Of Nature ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
Complete Identification ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Hedley Bull ◽  
Hans Morgenthau

The classic foundational status that Hobbes has been afforded by contemporary international relations theorists is largely the work of Hans Morgenthau, Martin Wight, and Hedley Bull. They were not unaware that they were to some extent creating a convenient fiction, an emblematic realist, a shorthand for all of the features encapsulated in the term. The detachment of international law from the law of nature by nineteenth-century positivists opened Hobbes up, even among international jurists, to be portrayed as almost exclusively a mechanistic theorist of absolute state sovereignty. If we are to endow him with a foundational place at all it is not because he was an uncompromising realist equating might with right, on the analogy of the state of nature, but instead to his complete identification of natural law with the law of nations. It was simply a matter of subject that distinguished them, the individual and the state.

The Use of Vattel in the American Law of Nations

2012 ◽  
Vol 106 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
American Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Law ◽  
History Of International Law

Although careful scholarly treatment of the history of international law is now thriving, within U.S. courts that history now begins with one eighteenth-century treatise published in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in 1758 and published in translation for modern readers under the aegis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 1916. This treatise is Emer de Vattel’s Droit des gens ou principes de la loi naturelle, appliqués à la conduite et aux affaires des nations et des souverains. My aim in this article is to appraise the elevation of Vattel to vaunted originalist heights in U.S. law. The claim that Vattel’s theory of the law of nations completely represents how the Founding Fathers (Founders) understood the law of nations should be rejected as a matter of history.

Stages of the formation of treaty law in the history of international law

2021 ◽  
pp. 90-95
Author(s):  
Marina Okladnaya ◽  
Anastasia Pererodova
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Main Body ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
International Treaty ◽  
Treaty Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Law ◽  
History Of International Law ◽  
Historical Periods

Problem setting. An international treaty is an agreement between two or more subjects of international relations concerning the establishment, modification or termination of mutual rights and obligations. In modern time an international treaty is the universal and primary source of international law and, at the same time, the law of treaties as a branch of international law occupies a central place in this system. The role of the treaty is constantly increasing, so it is important to study how treaty law was formed in order to understand how it has changed over history, and what factors have influenced the formation of the main branch of international law. Analysis of recent researches and publications. The law of international treaties causes increased attention of lawyers to the study, research and analysis of its main aspects. Among the domestic and foreign scholars who have made a significant contribution to the study of the law of treaties can be distinguished such as V. Butkevich, Y. Brownlie, A. Talalaev, O. Merezhko, O. Nazarenko, F. Martens, V. Shurshalov, I. Lukashuk, O. Zadorozhniy and others. Target of research. Study of international treaty at different stages of formation of international law, analysis and comparison of forms, content, functions and significance of the treaty in different historical periods. Article’s main body. The article is devoted to the development and formation of the basic branch of international law – treaty law. It studies the stages of formation of the institute of treaty law during different periods of history, identifies the features of the treaty at each stage of formation. Conclusions and prospects for the development. The agreement is an important and necessary instrument of interaction and communication between people, it establishes ties between peoples and states, helps to resolve conflicts, that is why the signing of treaties is a significant mechanism for the regulation of human relations since ancient times. In this article we have traced how different historical periods influenced the formation of international treaty law, which events were of key importance for the development of international law in general. Throughout the history of international law, the treaty has undergone a number of transformations of its forms, types and procedures of conclusion. The treaty form of consolidation of international relations is the basis of stability and efficiency of the legal order in international law. At the present time, the law of international treaties is a self-sufficient, developed branch and system of international law. It is the key branch of international law with its institutions, low basic principles, and continues to develop rapidly and irreversibly.

Book I Diplomacy in General, 3 Introduction to International Law

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilmshurst Elizabeth
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Comprehensive Account ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Law

This chapter provides a brief account of what international law is and what its sources are. This is particularly useful for those who have not studied the subject. International law may be defined as the law governing relations between States, and between States and international organizations. The chapter notes, however, that even this definition borders on the simplistic. In addition, the relevance of international law to the diplomat is emphasized in this chapter, as it contributes to the discussion later. Hence the chapter first briefly argues for the relevance of international law in the arena of international relations, before turning to a discussion on the nature, sources, and content of international law, in order to draw a more comprehensive account of what international law is about.

Carl Schmitt, Nomos of the Earth, and the Question of Historic Title in International Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-143
Author(s):  
Anthony Carty
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Law ◽  
Western Law ◽  
Raymond Aron

Abstract The Western international law of territory starts from a standpoint of the priority of the State over its population. The latter is merely an object of the ownership of the State. Title to territory rests on dominant evidence of State activity. The activity of so-called private individuals or economic activity of peoples do not count towards title to territory in the case law of international tribunals. This article contests the foundations of such a perspective. The so-called Western law of territory was devised by Western States to divide up among themselves the territory of non-Western ‘non-peoples’, culminating in the racist Island of Palmas Arbitration. Carl Schmitt provides the makings of an alternative history of the law of territory. It is, and should be, the law of the homelands of peoples, historically located on particular spaces. Peoples precede States, which are merely institutions used by Peoples to protect and administer their homelands. Whatever the difficulties of locating the homelands to which Peoples belong, escape into the so-called Western law of territory as a way to ‘Peace through the Rule of Law’ is an illusion – described contemptuously by the political theorist Raymond Aron as a Law of empty spaces. Without justice, there is no law.

scholarly journals The Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Nations Adopted by the American Institute of International Law

1916 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elihu Root
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
American Institute ◽  
Foreign Service ◽  
The People ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Law ◽  
International Events

With this meeting we finish the first decade of this Society. How great is the change of conditions in the field of international law during that period. Ten years ago all the governments of the world professed unqualified respect and obedience to the law of nations, and a very small number of persons not directly connected with government knew or cared anything about it. In this country at least international law was regarded as a rather antiquated branch of useless learning, diplomacy as a foolish mystery, and the foreign service as a superfluous expense. Now that governments have violated and flouted the law in many ways and with appalling consequences, the people of this country at least have begun to realize that observance of the law has a real and practical relation to the peace and honor of their own country and their own prosperity. They are beginning to take an interest in the subject, to discuss it in the newspapers, to inquire how observance of the law may be enforced. There appears a dawning consciousness that a democracy which undertakes to control its own foreign relations ought to know something about the subject. If we had not established this Society ten years ago to study and discuss and spread a knowledge of international law it would surely be demanded now, and we may be certain that our annual public discussions and the publication of the admirable Journal which we have always maintained, with its definite and certain informa-lion upon international events, its interesting and well informed discussion of international topics, and its supplements, with their wealth of authentic copies of international documents, have contributed materially towards fitting the people of our country to deal with the international situations which are before them.

Albericus Gentilis

1911 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 665-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Willing Balch
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
State Law ◽  
Imperial Rome ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The World ◽  
Pax Romana ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Law ◽  
Inter State

Modern international law is generally regarded as beginning with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. But it is necessary to go much further back in the history of the world for the beginnings of the law governing the intercourse of nations. The Greek states had a rudimentary inter-state law that regulated their relations. Thus they practiced arbitration in a way among themselves: they recognized the sanctity of the person of heralds, and they followed other recognized customs in their dealings one with another. When Rome and Carthage and other nations were struggling for the mastery of the world, the beginnings of a law of nations were recognized and practiced between them. Upon, however, practically all the known world coming under the sway of imperial Rome, all possibility as well as need of a law of nations was wanting, and as a result the faltering beginnings of an international law as recognized among the Greek states and then by the Powers surrounding the Mediterranean, were extinguished by the extension of the Pax Romana to all the known world.

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