A visible theme in the history of international law: international or global?

Abstract

It is widely recognised that international law is a Western construct. It is connected to the history, politics, and political domination of Western colonialism and imperialism which has created a form of order. As such, the paper will discuss the works of such scholars as Bluntschli, Lorimer, and Westlake, and will then trace the development of international law into the 20th century. Nineteenth-century international law was forged entirely in Europe; it was the expression of a shared European consciousness and culture, and was geographically located within a community of Europeans, which meant a community of Christians, and hence so called 'civilised' people. Despite this self-proclaimed superiority of European international law, the paper will also discuss the Asian contributions, the African efforts, and the Latin American developments of international law in a chronological statement through the centuries. In particular, the17th Century, 1815, 1918, and 1945 as international law changed in the post-World War II era when a larger community of nations developed Contemporary International Law.