History of International Law

Nicolas E. A Delcourt

Bachelor of Law, Economic, and Management

IL exists since Antiquity (2000 years ago)

In Middle East and Roman Empire

But Contemporary IL comes from Law European People (16-17th Century)

Context :

• Renaissance effect • Peace Treaties of Westphalia (1648)

The International society is now : Based on states who see themselves as

sovereign And equal in rights

Before?

To be part of international society :

Belong to Christian community

Respect and follow the decisions of the Emperor

And of the Pope

Now that the states are sovereign, what’s new? :

• They decide the limitation of their own territory

• They have an exclusive jurisdiction on it

Today, these two rules are the basic rules of the international law

The next process : the development of international

treaties (1814-1945) The seven treaties of Paris in 1814 by France

between it and each of the seven Allied States

Only two signatures per treaty The congress of Vienna in 1815 same

provisions but only one treaty 8 signatures in one treaty The two conferences about Peace in The

Hague (1899 and 1907)

Then, two deathly events will traumatize people and governments :

The Great War (1914-1918) and its 9 millions of death

Desire to cooperate and pacify relations between states

The Spanish flu (1918-1919) and its 1 billion people infected and 60 millions of death

Governments realize that the world is now global and all states are connected.

Therefore will be created the League of Nations (1919) and the Permanent Court of International

Justice (1922)

First world-wide organizations to have a political independence

Problem : the LoN have no authority and a few states respect it

Beginning of WW2 will definitely prove it is unable to prevent wars

After WW2 (1945), victorious states meet again and create UNO and ICJ

Same objectives but different organisation

TERIMA KASIH

QuickTime™ et undécompresseur

sont requis pour visionner cette image.