The Rule of Law and the Disintegration of the International Society

In: American journal of international law: AJIL, Volume 33, Issue 1, p. 56-77

Abstract

Professor A. L. Goodhart, of Oxford, in a paper on "The Nature of International Law" indicates a field of research which has hitherto been somewhat neglected by international lawyers. He suggests that "some of the most distinguished writers on international law have not sufficiently emphasised in their definitions of international law the essential part played by the community." This criticism does not, in our opinion, apply only to the definition of international law. None of its main issues, such as recognition, state responsibility, protection of nationals and property abroad, extradition, neutrality, intervention, or the rules of warfare, can be seen in their proper perspective if we disregard this background and the fundamental changes now taking place in the social environment which Professor Goodhart calls the "community."