The Impact of the Versailles System on International Relations

Abstract

The first rules of international law emerged with the advent of the state and the division of society into antagonistic classes. Of course, the content and structure of international law vary from one epoch to another, depending on the social order that succeeded. The creation of states, the dispute over supremacy among them, the development of diplomatic relations between them, the emergence of new institutions and principles of international law led to the need for systematic research into problems in international practice that gradually formed the object of a new branch of law, international law, which has earned a well-deserved place in the independent sciences. In the seventeenth and twentieth centuries there were frequent demonstrations of the peoples for the assertion of their national being, for the realization of the aspirations of freedom and progress, for the limitation of the sphere of action of imperialism and, finally, for peace and security. Studying the doctrine of international law, we certainly deduce the existence of two distinct periods of contemporary international law. The first refers to the period between the wars and the second corresponds to the end of World War II. We emphasize the fact that contemporary international law is characterized by the orientation with the scope of assuring peace, human rights, democracy, towards peaceful cooperation between states and the freedom of peoples. Edifying to achieve such desideratum are the series of treaties concluded at the beginning of the twentieth century.