Focarelli, Carlo --- "International Law in the 20th Century" [2011] ELECD 586; in Orakhelashvili, Alexander (ed), "Research Handbook on the Theory and History of International Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Theory and History of International Law

Editor(s): Orakhelashvili, Alexander

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848443549

Section: Chapter 17

Section Title: International Law in the 20th Century

Author(s): Focarelli, Carlo

Number of pages: 49

Extract:

17 International law in the 20th century
Carlo Focarelli


17.1 INTRODUCTION

What sort of international law was in place at the outset of the 20th century?1 The slave
trade had been abolished, paving the way for international law rules aimed at protecting
human beings as such.2 Humanitarian considerations, with a view to alleviating the grue-
some effects of war, had also inspired the establishment of the Red Cross and the making
in 1864 of the first ever Convention on the protection of the victims of war,3 which in
turn set in motion the process of codification of customary international law in general.4
Humanitarian and cosmopolitan ideas had inspired the mission of the Institut de droit
international founded in 1873.5 A number of international institutions had been created,
particularly in the course of the 19th century, such as International River Commissions
and Administrative Unions,6 as well as regional international organizations such as the
Union of the American Republics.
These rules and institutions had emerged within the `states system' originally built by
equal, mutual-tolerating, secular European powers sharing a similar political, economic,
social, religious and cultural background.7 In the 19th century the system began to
expand globally by spreading the `state' model outside Europe. At that time international
law was applied to `civilized nations', namely to those states ­ essentially European, or
of European descent and cultural background ­ that fulfilled a `standard of civilization'


1
For an overall exposition of the history of international ...