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On the Concept of International Law*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2017

Alfred von Verdeoss
Alfred von Verdeoss*
Affiliation:
University of Vienna
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Extract

Four different definitions of international law can be found in the literature. According to the narrowest of these definitions, international law is that legal order which regulates the relations between independent (sovereign) states. Thus the Permanent Court of International Justice stated in its judgment of September 7, 1927, in the Lotus case: “International Law governs relations between independent States.” But generally this definition is immediately expanded by defining international law as that legal order which governs relations between independent states and certain other sovereign communities (the Catholic Church, recognized belligerents). Brandweiner uses an even wider definition. He considers that international law includes also the legal rules governing the relations between states and other ecclesiastical communities as well as the relations of the different Churches inter se.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , July 1949 , pp. 435 - 440
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1949

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Footnotes

*

Translated from the German original by Josef L. Kunz of the Board of Editors.

References

page 435 note 1 See Taube, in Archiv für Rechts- und Wirtschaftsphilosophie, Vol. I (1907), pp. 360 ff.Google Scholar; Spiropoulos, Théorie Générale de Droit International Public (1930), pp. 8 ff.; Scerni, Saggio sulla natura giuridica delle norme emanate dagli organi creati con atti internazionali (1931); Scelle, , Précis de Droit des Gens (1932), Vol. I, pp. 27 Google Scholar ff., and Manuel (1943), pp. 19 ff.; Kelsen, in Oesterreichische Zeitschrift für öffentliches Recht, Vol. I (1946), pp. 20 ff.Google Scholar; Ross, A Textbook of International Law (1947), pp. 11 ff.; Brandweiner, Die christlichen Kirchen als souveräne Rechtsgemeinschaften (1948).

page 435 note 2 P. C. I. J., Series A/10, pp. 16 ff.

page 436 note 3 Kant, , Die Metaphysik der Sitten, Vol. I, p. 53 Google Scholar.

page 437 note 4 Thus, correctly, Plöchl, , “Reflections on the Nature and Status of Concordats,” The Jurist, Vol. VII, No. 1 (1947), pp. 16 Google Scholar ff.

page 438 note 5 Hague Academy of International Law, Recueil des Cours, Vol. 30 (1929), V, p. 311 Google Scholar.

page 439 note 6 Thus, correctly, Kunz, , “The Free Territory of Trieste,” The Western Political Quarterly, Vol. I, No. 1 (1948), p. 111 Google Scholar.

page 439 note 7 Phillipson, The International Law and Custom of Ancient Greece and Rome (1911); Korff, , in Hague Academy of International Law, Becueil des Cours, Vol. 1 (1923), pp. 5 Google Scholar ff.

page 439 note 8 Viswanatha, International Law in Ancient India (1935).

page 439 note 9 Siu-Tschoan-Pao, Le droit des gens et la Chine antique (1925).

page 440 note 10 Taube, , in Hague Academy of International Law, Recueil des Cours, Vol. 11 (1926), I, pp. 345 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 440 note 11 Rechid, , “L’Islam et le droit des gens,” in Hague Academy of International Law, Recueil des Cours, Vol. 60 (1937), II, pp. 375 Google Scholar ff.