History of International Law

Before the Second World War International law deemed states the sole subjects of international rights and duties while individual human beings were merely the objects of International law. Individuals were unable to seek remedies for injuries suffered at the hands of other states. It was for the national state to adopt the grievance and seek compensation at the international level. As a result, any award made to individuals suffering the wrong were essentially discretionary.

Thus, states exclusively possessed the rights to enter into international obligations, to seek redress for injuries, to exercise international rights and to acknowledge international duties. International law was the reaction of states and exclusively regulated the relations between states. Colonies, protectorates, mandate and trusteeship territories were non-state entities and could not be the subjects of international obligations.

A number of major inroads have been made into this traditional doctrine. Firstly a twilight category of semi-states has come to exist since 1945 which exercise limited sovereignty and international personality. Clearly these semi-states have become limited subjects of international law.

The second major erosion of the principle that states are the main subjects of international law has occurred as a result of the proliferation of international organizations and agencies. In the Reparation Case (1949) the International Court declared that the United Nations had international personality for the purposes of initiating an international claim against Israel for wrongs committed against its officials. This capacity had to be exercised in an intra vires manner which meant that the capacity of the organization was limited to the express and implied powers of the organization in the regulation of the international affairs.

International law in the Second half of the twentieth century has been developing in many directions, as the complexities of life in the modern era have multiplied. Law reflects the conditions and cultural traditions of the society within which it operates. The community evolves a certain specific set of values, social, economic and political, and this stamps its mark on the legal framework which orders life in that environment. Similarly, international law is a product of its environment. It has developed in accordance with the prevailing notions of international relations and to survive it must be in harmony with the realities of the age.

Nevertheless, there is a continuing tension between those rules already established and the constantly evolving forces that seek changes within the system. One of the major problems of international law is to determine when and how to incorporate new standards of behavior and new realities of life into the already existing framework, so that, on the one hand the law remains relevant and on the other, the system itself is not too vigorously disrupted.

Changes that occur within the international community can be momentous and reverberate throughout the system. One example is the advent of nuclear arms, creating a status quo in Europe and a balance of terror throughout the world, and constituting a factor of unease as other states seek to acquire nuclear technology. Another example is the technological capacity to mine the oceans and the consequent questions as to the nature and beneficiaries of exploitation. There are several instances of how modern developments demand a constant reappraisal of the structure of international law and its rules.

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