INTERNATIONAL LAW CHAPTER I THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF INTERNATIONAL LAW a. Tendencies in the development national within of inter law: law the state From the dawn of history the natural instincts of men have led them to associate with one another in groups of varying size and structure. By successive stages of family or horde, clan, tribe, and nation these groups enlarged in range and functions until they have brought us to the complex organization of the modern state. Throughout its later development the dominant characteristic of the state has been the presence of a rule of conduct governing the conflicts of individual claims, protecting the rights of the members of the community, and prescribing their respective duties. The substance of this rule of conduct has been the sense of justice prevailing at a given time within the community, whether expressed by custom and tradition or by specific enactments of kings or assemblies. Supplementing this standard of justice as the arbiter of conflicting claims came, by slower and later development, a body of rules looking to the furtherance of the common interests of the whole group. The public welfare came to be recognized as an object of coöperative effort, partly in the form of security against attacks from without the state, and partly in the form of an increase in the moral and material prosperity of the group. The law of the state thus represents, in its more modern forms, Implications the recognition by the citizen body of the necessity of applying w to the disputes of individuals the collective judgment of the community expressed through the decisions of its judicial tribunals: The rights thus recognized are protected by the collective power of the community, put into effect by the designated executive agencies. Within the prescribed sphere of its operation, the will of the group dominates over the will of the individual citizen. Furthermore, in matters regarded as of common interest to the whole group, law represents measures to which the individual must give his support in expectation of advantages accruing to the state as a whole, whether indirectly beneficial to each citizen personally or merely to a majority of the community. of municipal Correspond But the forces creating the necessity of law as a basis of peace- ing need of ful contact and profitable intercourse between citizen and citizen 3 law between states |