I Actors, 1 Peoples and Nations
Jörg Fisch
From: The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law
Edited By: Bardo Fassbender, Anne Peters
- Subject(s):
- 1648-1815 — 1815 to World War I — Colonization / Decolonization — Self-determination — World War I to World War II
International law is, and always has been, law between States and thus between political entities, not law between nations, peoples, or other groups of human beings. This holds at least for international law in the Greco-Roman tradition which has become the foundation of the worldwide international law, and which has also provided most of its terminology. States have never been the only subjects of international law, but they have always been the most essential ones. While it seems uncontested that international law is first and above all law between States,...
