Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The term “international law” first appears in an essay by Jeremy Bentham, The Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, written in 1789. The timing and the definition of this term are significant; not only has “international law” developed as a result of the development of the state itself, but 1789 is usually taken as a turning point in the structure of the state. In that year, the state began to change from the dynastic, monarchical structures that had dominated Europe to a more abstracted structure that drew its legitimacy from its relationship to the nation, rather than to a royal family. Accordingly, although Bentham claims to be doing no more than renaming what had been called “the law of nations,” in fact he makes two important distinctions between that law and the new subject of international law. While the law of nations held that suits by a state against a private citizen of another state, and also suits between two citizens from different states, lay in the domain of the law of nations, Bentham excludes such cases and assumes that they properly belong to domestic rather than international law. For Bentham, as for us, international law has to do with relations among states, within a society of states that is distinct from the relationships among rulers and their subjects that hitherto prevailed. This article examines the applicability and sources of international ... log in or subscribe to read full text