International law

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"Law of Nations" redirects here. For the 18th-century political treatise,
see The Law of Nations.

Illustrated title page "Hugo the Great of the Truth of the Christian Worship." Along
with the earlier work of Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili, Hugo Grotius
laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law.

The First Geneva Convention (1864) is one of the earliest formulations of

international law
International law, also known as public international law or law of
nations,[1] is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally
regarded and accepted in relations between nations.[2][3] It establishes
normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for states
to follow across a broad range of domains, including war, diplomacy,
trade, and human rights. International law thus provides a mean for
states to practice more stable, consistent, and organized international
relations.[4]
The sources of international law include international custom (general
state practice accepted as law), treaties, and general principles of law
recognised by most national legal systems. International law may
also be reflected in international comity, the practices and customs
adopted by states to maintain good relations and mutual recognition,
such as saluting the flag of a foreign ship or enforcing a foreign
judgment.
International law differs from state-based legal systems in that it is
primarily—though not exclusively—applicable to countries, rather
than to individuals, and operates largely through consent, since there
is no universally accepted authority to enforce it upon sovereign
states. Consequently, states may choose to not abide by international
law, and even to break a treaty.[5] However, such violations,
particularly of customary international law and peremptory norms (jus
cogens), can be met with coercive action, ranging from military
intervention to diplomatic and economic pressure.
The relationship and interaction between a national legal system
(municipal law) and international law is complex and variable.
National law may become international law when treaties permit
national jurisdiction to supranational tribunals such as the European
Court of Human Rights or the International Criminal Court. Treaties
such as the Geneva Conventions may require national law to conform
to treaty provisions. National laws or constitutions may also provide
for the implementation or integration of international legal obligations
into domestic law.

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External links Terminology[edit]
The term "international law" is sometimes divided into "public" and
"private" international law, particularly by civil law scholars, who seek
to follow a Roman tradition.[6] Roman lawyers would have further
distinguished jus gentium, the law of nations, and jus inter gentes,
agreements between nations. On this view, "public" international law
is said to cover relations between nation-states and includes fields
such as treaty law, law of sea, international criminal law, the laws of
war or international humanitarian law, international human rights law,
and refugee law. By contrast "private" international law, which is more
commonly termed "conflict of laws", concerns whether courts within
countries claim jurisdiction over cases with a foreign element, and
which country's law applies.[7]
A more recent concept is "supranational law", which concerns
regional agreements where the laws of nation states may be held
inapplicable when conflicting with a supranational legal system to
which the nation has a treaty obligation.[8] Systems of"supranational
law arise when nations explicitly cede their right to make certain
judicial decisions to a common tribunal.[9] The decisions of the
common tribunal are directly effective in each party nation, and have
priority over decisions taken by national courts.[10] The European
Union is most prominent example of an international treaty
organization that implements a supranational legal framework, with
the European Court of Justice having supremacy over all member-
nation courts in matter of European Union law.
The term "transnational law" is sometimes used to a body of rules
that transcend the nation state.[11]
History[edit]
Main article: History of international law
The origins of international law can be traced back to ancient times.
Among the earliest examples are peace treaties between the
Mesopotamian city-states of Lagash and Umma in approximately
2100 BCE, and an agreement between the Egyptian pharaoh
Ramses II and the Hittite king, Hattusilis III, concluded in 1258 BCE.
Interstate pacts and agreements of various kinds were also
negotiated and concluded by polities across the world, including in
the Levant, Indian subcontinent, Iran, and China. Ancient Greece,
which developed basic notions of governance and international
relations, contributed to the formation of the international legal
system; many of the earliest peace treaties on record were concluded
among the Greek city-states or with neighboring states such as Iran.
The conceptual framework of international law was established during
the Roman Empire. The jus gentium (Latin: "law of nations") was
invented to govern the status of foreigners living in Rome and
relations between foreigners and Roman citizens. Adopting the Greek
concept of natural law—the idea that certain rights are inherent to all
humans—the Romans conceived of jus gentiumas as being
universal. In contrast to modern international law, the Roman concept
applied to relations with and between foreign individuals rather than
among political units such as states.
Following the collapse of the western Roman Empire in the fifth
century CE, Europe endured frequent warring and political instability
for much of the next five centuries. Political power was dispersed
across a range of entities, including the Church, city-states, and
kingdoms, most of which had overlapping and ever-changing
jurisdictions. This led to the development of various rules aimed at
providing stable and predictable relations. Early examples include
canon law, which governed ecclesiastical institutions and clergy
throughout Europe; the lex mercatoria ("merchant law"), which
concerned trade and commerce; and various codes of maritime law,
such as the Rolls of Oléron (which drew from the ancient Roman Lex
Rhodia) and the Laws of Wisby (Visby), enacted among the
commercial Hanseatic League of northern Europe and the Baltic
region.[12]
In the Islamic tradition, the world was divided between the dar al-
Islam (lterritory of Islam), regions where Islamic law prevails; [3] dar al-
sulh (territory of treaty), non-Islamic realms that have concluded an
armistice with a Muslim government;[4] and dar al-harb (territory of
war), non-Islamic lands whose rulers are called upon to accept Islam.
Early Islamic legal principles concerning military conduct and the
treatment of prisoners of war under the early Caliphate are
considered precursors to international humanitarian law. The many
requirements on how prisoners of war should be treated included
providing shelter, food and clothing, respecting their cultures, and
preventing any acts of execution, rape or revenge. Some of these
principles were not codified in Western international law until modern
times.[13] Islamic law under the early Caliphate institutionalised
humanitarian limitations on military conduct, including attempts to
limit the severity of war, guidelines for ceasing hostilities,
distinguishing between civilians and combatants, preventing
unnecessary destruction, and caring for the sick and wounded.[14]
Early international law[edit]
During the Middle Ages, international law was concerned primarily
with the purpose and legitimacy of war, seeking to determine what
constituted a "just war". For example, the theory of armistice held the
nation that caused unwarranted war could not enjoy the right to
obtain or conquer trophies that were legitimate at the time.[15] The
Greco-Roman concept of natural law was combined with religious
principles by Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (1135–1204)
and Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) to create the
new discipline of the "law of nations", which was conceived as the
aspect of natural law that applied to relations between states. In
Islam, a similar framework was developed wherein the law of nations
was derived, in part, from the principles and rules set forth in treaties
with non-Muslims.[16]
The 15th century witnessed a confluence of factors that contributed to
an accelerated development of international law into its current
framework. The influx of Greek scholars in Europe from the
collapsing Byzantine Empire, along with the introduction of the
printing press, spurred the development of science, humanism, and
notions of individual rights. Increased navigation and exploration by
Europeans challenged scholars to devise a conceptual framework for
relations with different peoples and cultures. The emerged of
centralised states such as Spain and France brought more wealth,
ambition, and trade, which in turn required rules and regulations. By
the 16th century, the concept of sovereignty was conceived, which
gave rulers the full right and power over their territory and population
without any outside interference. A collection of independent
sovereign entities—known as "nation-states"—would form basis of a
new international system where foreign relations and actions would
be guided and governed by certain mutually accepted rules.
The Italian peninsula, then divided among various city-states with
complex and often fractious relationships, was subsequently an early
incubator of international law theory. Jurist and law professor Bartolus
da Saxoferrato (1313–1357), who was well versed in Roman and
Byzantine law, contributed to the increasingly relevant area of
"conflicts of law", which concerns disputes between private
individuals and entities in different sovereign jurisdictions; he is thus
considered the founder of the modern study of private international
law. Another Italian jurist and law professor, Baldus de Ubaldis
(1327–1400), provided voluminous commentaries and compilations of
Roman, ecclesiastical, and feudal law, thus creating an organised
source of law that could be referenced by different nations. The most
famous contributor from the region, Alberico Gentili (1552–1608), is
considered a founder of international law, authoring one of the
earliest works on the subject, De Legationibus Libri Tres, in 1585. He
wrote several more books on various issues in international law,
notably De jure belli libri tres (Three Books on the Law of War), which
provided comprehensive commentary on the laws of war and treaties,
Spain, whose global empire spurred a golden age of economic and
intellectual development in the 16th and 17th centuries, produced
major contributors to international law. Francisco de Vitoria (1486–
1546), who was concerned with the treatment of the indigenous
peoples by Spain, invoked the law of nations as a basis for their
innate dignity and rights, articulating an early version of sovereign
equality between peoples. Francisco Suárez (1548–1617)
emphasized that international law was founded upon the law of
nature.
The Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) is widely regarded as the
most seminal figure in international law, being one of the first scholars
to articulate an international order that consists of a "society of states"
governed not by force or warfare but by actual laws, mutual
agreements, and customs.[17] Grotius secularised international law
and organized it into a comprehensive system; his 1625 work, De
Jure Belli ac Pacis (On the Law of War and Peace), laid down a
system of principles of natural law that bind all nations regardless of
local custom or law. He also emphasized the freedom of the high
seas, which was not only relevant to the growing number of European
states exploring and colonising the world, but remains a cornerstone
of international law today. Although the modern study of international
law would not begin until the early 19th century, the 16th century
scholars Gentili, Vitoria and Grotius laid the foundations and are
widely regarded as the "fathers of international law."[18]
Grotius inspired two nascent schools of international law, the
naturalists and the positivists. In the former camp was German jurist
Samuel von Pufendorf (1632–94), who stressed the supremacy of the
law of nature over states. His 1672 work, De iure naturae et gentium,
expanded on the theories of Grotius and grounded natural law to
reason and the secular world, asserting that it regulates only the
external acts of states. Pufendorf challenged the Hobbesian notion
that the state of nature was one of war and conflict, arguing that the
natural state of the world is actually peaceful but weak and uncertain
without adherence to the law of nations. The actions of a state consist
of nothing more than the sum of the individuals within that state,
thereby requiring the state to apply a fundamental law of reason,
which is the basis of natural law. He was among the earliest scholars
to expand international law beyond European Christian nations,
advocating for its application and recognition among all peoples on
the basis of shared humanity.
In contrast, positivist writers, such as Richard Zouche (1590–1661) in
England and Cornelis van Bynkershoek (1673–1743) in the
Netherlands, argued that international law should derive from the
actual practice of states rather than Christian or Greco-Roman
sources. The study of international law shifted away from its core
concern on the law of war and towards the domains such as the law
of the sea and commercial treaties. The positivist school made use of
the new scientific method and was in that respect consistent with the
empiricist and inductive approach to philosophy that was then gaining
acceptance in Europe.
Emergence of modern international law[edit]

Sir Alberico Gentili is regarded as the Father of international law.[19]

The developments of the 16th century came to a head at the
conclusion of the "Peace of Westphalia" in 1648, which is considered
to be the seminal event in international law. The resulting
"Westphalian sovereignty" established the current international legal
order of equality of sovereignty between nations, including the
inviolability of borders and non-interference in the domestic affairs of
sovereign states. From this period onward, the concept of the
sovereign nation-state evolved rapidly, and with it the development of
complex relations that required predictable, widely-accepted rules
and guidelines. The idea of nationalism emerged as people began to
see themselves as citizens of a particular group with a distinct
national identity, further solidifying the concept of the nation-state.
Elements of both the naturalist and positivist schools became
synthesised, most notably by German philosopher Christian Wolff
(1679–1754) and Swiss jurist Emerich de Vattel (1714–67), both of
whom sought a middle ground approach in international law. During
the 18th century, the positivist tradition gained broader acceptance,
although concept of natural rights remained influential in international
politics, particularly through the republican revolutions of the United
States and France. Only in the 20th century would natural rights gain
further salience in international law.
Several legal systems developed in Europe, including the codified
systems of continental European states known as civil law, and
English common law, which is based on decisions by judges and not
by written codes. Other areas around the world developed differing
legal systems, with the Chinese legal tradition dating back more than
four thousand years, although at the end of the 19th century, there
was still no written code for civil proceedings in China.[20]
Until the mid-19th century, relations between states were dictated
mostly by treaties, agreements between states to behave in a certain
way, unenforceable except by force, and nonbinding except as
matters of honor and faithfulness. One of the first instruments of
modern international law was the Lieber Code of 1863, which
governed the conduct of U.S. forces during the U.S. Civil War, and is
considered to be the first written recitation of the rules and articles of
war adhered to by all civilised nations. This led to the first prosecution
for war crimes, in which a Confederate commandant was tried and
hanged for holding prisoners of war in cruel and depraved conditions
at Andersonville, Georgia. In the years that followed, other states
subscribed to limitations of their conduct, and numerous other treaties
and bodies were created to regulate the conduct of states towards
one another, including the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 1899,
and the Hague and Geneva Conventions, the first of which was
passed in 1864.