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• be established at The Hague to judge all international cases presented to the court in accordance with its statute.20 The court was founded in 1920. An optional clause in the statute (article 36) invited all governments to recognize, by way of a unilateral declaration, as compulsory and without special agreement the jurisdiction of the court in all...
• The history of the concept of international law itself shows a clear insistence on this terminology. While ‘States’ law’ or Staatenrecht, etc. as a term has been used occasionally, it has always remained an exception.1 It seems that those involved did not want to use it as long as they could avoid it. This means that the terminology of internationa...
• Ius gentium was natural law, in contrast to ius civile, the domestic law of Rome. International law maintained this dual character of (natural) law common to all mankind (not necessarily to states), and law for the relations between different gentes, although in reality it regulated relations between states or other political organizations.
• a further competitor for a translation from Latin arose: natio. It had a partly similar etymology, referring mainly to communities of common descent, but it lacked the pejorative component of populus. Hitherto it had differentiated between relatively coincidental groups, especially in universities, while now a nation became a human group definitely...
• extended, or reduced mainly by force, not by discussions or plebiscites. This view found its clearest expression in Thucydides’ dialogue between the Athenians and the Melians: it is not the majority but the most powerful who decide.4 This holds even more true for the Middle Ages, as there were few democratic institutions (while there were many form...