The law of nations, inter-State law founded on the will of States

2018 ◽  
pp. 62-86
Keyword(s):  
State Law ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Law ◽  
Inter State

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.

‘Jus Gentium’ and the Law of Nature in Asia (1956)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. H. Alexandrowicz
Keyword(s):  
State Law ◽  
The West ◽  
Law Of Nature ◽  
Strong Emphasis ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
Independent States ◽  
The Law ◽  
International Character ◽  
Mutually Independent ◽  
Inter State

This chapter discusses the development of the law of nations in Asia. China, for instance, developed their own notions of inter-state law and practice with a strong emphasis on the institution of vassal states who acknowledged the supreme authority of the imperial suzerain. There seems to have been legal equality among these mutually independent states in the Chinese Commonwealth. Diplomatic intercourse was well known and envoys enjoyed immunity, though to a lesser degree than in the West. In India, the relations between rulers led to the development of principles of an international or quasi-international character. Kautilya’s Arthashastra bears witness to the existence of a well-defined set of rules which prevailed in the various ‘circles’ of states. Interstate law in India knew humanitarian rules of warfare, the inviolability of envoys, the vassal–suzerain relationship, and principles relating to maritime intercourse.

Preface.

2019 ◽  
pp. 19-23
Author(s):  
Jean Allain
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
The State ◽  
Napoleon Bonaparte ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The Law ◽  
State Relations ◽  
Inter State ◽  
The French Revolution

Joseph-Mathias Gérard de Rayneval’s Preface to his Institutions du Droit de La Nature et des Gens sets out the content of his study. The Preface outlines each of the three Books and the Appendix, wherein he considers the fundamentals of the Law of Nations in the wake of the French Revolution and the coming to power of Napoleon Bonaparte. Those consideration are developed by first providing an understanding of the internal functioning of the State so as to then build an understanding of the Law of Nations. Having set out the principles which govern inter-State relations, Rayneval provides an Appendix which focus on the policy considerations for those seeking to navigate the art of governing.

Kautilyan Principles and the Law of Nations (1965–66)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. H. Alexandrowicz
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Inter State

This chapter analyses the Kautilyan tradition as followed in India or Further India during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. It draws upon Kautilya’s Arthasastra (fourth century BC), one of the most significant sources indicating the principles of inter-sovereign conduct. Some of the most significant principles include: individual responsibility of each sovereign within the collectivity or concert of all sovereigns in the circle of states for the maintenance of a measure of inter-state public order; balance of power within the circle, modified by the evolution towards centralization of power and potential unification of states under a supreme authority; the principles relating to the treatment of foreign settlements; and negotiation to the limit before resort is made to sanctions or force (or even voting) for the solution of conflicts. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the impact of these principles on the development of the system of international law.

Identifying a Principle of International Law Today

1974 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 106-122
Author(s):  
S. Prakash Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
General Application ◽  
International Lawyer ◽  
Law Of Nature ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Law

The midwives of international law, Gentili, Grotius, Vitoria, Suarez, Pufendorf, and Wolff, found the principles of this law in the law of nature. This, in turn, was derived by some of them from the law of God and by others from the law of reason. But, as the law of nations grew and its content developed, its derivation was established, particularly with Vattel in the middle of the eighteenth century, from the will of states rather than from the law of nature. Today’s international lawyer simply inherits the principle of identification whereby international-law rules of general application are created by international custom. (This custom is produced by that kind of practice of states relating to a matter of international relations which is concordant and general and is accompanied by the conviction of states that it is obligatory under international law.) The application of this principle of identification, however, is not so simple because of the appearance of three new situations.

Mogul Sovereignty and the Law of Nations (1955)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. H. Alexandrowicz
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
The West ◽  
Legal Nature ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Law ◽  
State Relations ◽  
Inter State

The historian of the law of nations, when considering Mogul sovereignty, is concerned with two main problems: first, the legal status of the Mogul Empire within the family of nations and the type of law applicable to inter-state relations at that time; and second, the internal structure of the Empire, which was essentially based on a network of suzerain–vassal relationships. This chapter discusses a few characteristic events to shed more light on these problems. Such events may be chosen from Anglo-Mogul relations in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. The period between the reign of Emperor Akbar and Emperor Aurangzeb saw the greatest expansion of the Empire and one of the most remarkable episodes during this period—an episode which helps to illustrate the legal nature of relations between India and the West, the embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the Court of Agra.

Francis Lieber —His Life and His Work: Part I

1911 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Nys
Keyword(s):  
Executive Power ◽  
Business Organizations ◽  
Conflict Of Laws ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The World ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Law

As a characteristic of contemporary civilization, history will doubtless point to the unceasing effort to establish on a solid basis the juridical organization of the world. The essential requisites are already at hand. Facility of communication, suppression of distances, the fact that the different regions are in constant communication, all of these things greatly facilitate the work. There are no longer undiscovered lands, or inaccessible countries. In the commercial and industrial world business organizations embrace all the nations of the earth. In the intellectual domain, an irresistible international movement has succeeded the narrow conceptions heretofore existing. It is especially in the domain of law that such manifestations have been shown and are still shown with an ever-increasing intensity. In the vast subject of the conflict of laws, an effort is being made to obtain uniform rules; in the subject of the law of nations not only have numerous conventions been concluded, some of which number as contracting parties practically all the states; but the application of justice has been organized, and, already, has gone beyond the phase of arbitration; there exists a true judicial court, a court which declares and decides law in its own right instead of depending upon the will of those amenable to its jurisdiction. Everything indicates that the time is close at hand when a legislative and an executive power will be established over the nations; at any rate, no one nowadays thinks of pronouncing such institutions impossible and fit to be classed with unrealizable dreams.

The Intercantonal Law of Switzerland (Swiss Interstate Law)

1909 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Huber
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Federal State ◽  
State Law ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The Law

Interstate law is the law governing the relations between the members of a confederation of states with each other, in so far as these are opposed to each other as states. It is distinguished from international law because its subjects are not sovereigns, but belong to a governed body of a superordinate commonwealth. As opposed to federal state law it is characterized by having for its object not relations of supremacy and subordination between the federation and its members, but relations of coordination between the members of the federal state. Interstate law is an intermediary conception between the law of confederations and the law of nations.

Without the Power to Drink or Contract

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-48
Author(s):  
Warren Swain
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Current Position ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Law ◽  
Over Time

Intoxication as a ground to set aside a contract is not something that has proved to be easy for the law to regulate. This is perhaps not very surprising. Intoxication is a temporary condition of varying degrees of magnitude. Its presence does however raise questions of contractual autonomy and individual responsibility. Alcohol consumption is a common social activity and perceptions of intoxication and especially alcoholism have changed over time. Roman law is surprisingly quiet on the subject. In modern times the rules about intoxicated contracting in Scottish and English law is very similar. Rather more interestingly the law in these two jurisdictions has reached the current position in slightly different ways. This history can be traced through English Equity, the works of the Scottish Institutional writers, the rise of the Will Theory, and all leavened with a dose of judicial pragmatism.

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