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The Codification of International Law*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

James Brown Scott
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Extract

There are certain preliminary observations which should be made before we can take up the question of codifying international law or the method of codification, for without a correct understanding of certain matters, which may be considered fundamental, we may not know whether we are to deal with a system of law or a system of philosophy. As a matter of fact we are dealing with both, for law develops unconsciously or consciously in accordance with the principles of philosophy. If the law of nations is to be considered law in the strict sense of the word, we must deal with it as a system of law. If, on the other hand, it is a system of philosophy rather than of law, we must deal with it as philosophy, and the point of approach and the method of treatment will be different. But, above and beyond law, we are dealing with justice, and with those principles of justice, which, expressed in rules of law, we call the law of nations. Justice is the source; the principles of justice applicable to the conduct of nations constitute the law of nations, and the rules of law based upon these principles change with conditions, or to meet new conditions, and form the body and substance of international law at any given period.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , April 1924 , pp. 260 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1924 

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Footnotes

*

English version of an address delivered in Spanish at the University of Habana, Feb.8,1924.

References

1 In re Arbitration between Osaka Shosen Kaisha and Owners of Steamship Prometheus,Supreme Court of Hongkong,1906, 2 Hongkong Law Reports, 207.

2 Hall, ,International Law,3d ed., preface.Google Scholar

3 Ibid.

4 2 Dodson,210.

5 10 Wheaton 66

6 Proceedings of the American Society of International Law,1920, pp. 64 5.

7 Ibid., pp. 79-81.

8 175 U. S. 677.

9 West Rand Central Gold Mining Co., Limited,v. The King, 1905,2 K. B. 391.

10 Ibid

11 The Queen v. Keyn, L. R. 2 Exch. Div., 63.

12 Special address, March 5, 1914. Richardson, , Messages and Papers of the Presidents,Vol. XVI, p. 7933 Google Scholar

13 The American Institute of International Law. Its Declaration of the Bights and Duties of Nations (Washington, 1916), p. 88.

14 La Jeune Eugénie, 2 Mason 409; Fed. Cas. No. 15551 (1822).

15 Ibid.