Mathematical Thinking and International Law

Abstract

We examine the hypothesis that natural law philosophy in general and modern international law, in particular from the 17th century on, was based on the successful application of mathematical methods to modern physics and to modern war. However, it was not a case of direct application, apart from a few scattered references, rather modern international law was part of the same broad intellectual movement and change of all the sciences. It is shown that the natural law foundation of international law (by Hugo Grotius) was characterized by a strict method, where deductions from minimalist axioms produced natural laws of universal validity as the necessary relations among normative phenomena, including the important part of the law of war and peace. The power of contracting, axiomatically included among the natural powers of man and human societies, justified the historically contingent positive laws while the natural law made and still is the basis for the validity and obligation of the natural law as well as the positive treaty law.