The Origins of Public International Law

1. The Origins of Public International Law

2. “In the beginning, there was…”

3. Ancient Egypt • Once probably the most peaceful nation in the ancient world

4. Ancient Egypt According to the Correspondence of Tell el-Amarna (15th – 14th centuries BC), Pharaoh Amenophis III (1388–1353/1351 BC) concluded, through dynastic marriages, strategic alliances with Mitanni and Babylon. Both alliances were established in counterweight to growing threats from the Hittite Kingdom.

5. Ancient Egypt 1268 BC – peace and alliance treaty between the Hittite king Hattusili III (reigned in about 1275–1250 BC), and Pharaoh Ramses II (reigned in about 1289–1213 BC)

6. Ancient Assyria Under the Sargonides (800 – 700 BC) – army of about 150 thousand men. Under Darius III, defeated by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.

7. Ancient China The Era of Warring States (5th – 3rd centuries BC): war is natural. The School of Legalists: two useful occupations of the State: agriculture and war.

8. Ancient China Confucius (551 – 479 BC): war is barbarity and stupidity. Mo Tzu (470 – 391 BC): direct attacks allowed only against mutineers and robbers.

9. Ancient China Sun Tzu (544 – 496 BC ???): “The Art of War” 36 stratagems

10. Ancient India “The Laws of Manu” (about 1250 – 1000 century BC): “[P]eace and its counterpart [war] depend on ambassadors, for they alone make allies and [also can] make them quarrel […] Affairs which make peace among kings or cause wars [among them] are within their power”.

11. Ancient Greece • External opposition between Greeks and the βαρβαροι • Internal opposition between Greek city States: • War of Peloponessus (431 – 404 BC); • Corinth War (395 – 387 BC) • 338 BC: subjugation of all Greece, except Sparta, by Macedonia

12. Ancient Rome Republican period (509 – 27 BC): acquisition of territories on the basis of foedera aequa and foedera non aequa Imperial period (27 BC – 476 AD): territorial consolidation 212 AD: Emperor Caracalla´s edict

13. “The Middle Ages were quite… average…”

14. The Caliphate No wars allowed, as a matter of principle, between Muslims. Wars are allowed between the Dar al Islam and the Dar al G´arb.

15. Japan´s Culture of War Francis Brinkley (1841–1912): “Behind a visible passion for all which is superior and fine, there is a strong hidden addiction to the pompousness of military parades and the speediness of mortal attacks; and just exactly as the shogun was trying to show to the citizens of his capital an enchanting picture of a trouble-free peace, although it was merely a decoration for extensive military preparations, so did the Japanese at all times like switching their attention between fencing schools and ikebana, between battlefields and gardens of stones, thereby gaining pleasure from dangers and struggle of the former and, at the same time, enjoying the finesse and calmness of the latter”.

16. Japan´s Culture of War Edwin Oldfather Reischauer (1910–1990): “Two centuries of artificial peace under the Edo government’s careful eye and strict control have made an irreversible impact upon the people. The militant, almost recklessly courageous Japanese of the sixteenth century turned, by the nineteenth century, into a submissive people who were expecting, obediently, guiding instructions from their governors and fulfilling, in unquestioning ways, any orders from the top […] People got used to “instinctively” listening to edifications offered by the country’s military leaders, assuming that, by virtue of their status, those leaders always were “sincere and honest” […] Seven centuries of domination by the military caste […] have shaped ways of thinking and behaving which could not be easily got rid of in the new time, and they have not been erased even today”.

17. Hugo de Groot (1583 – 1645) 1625: De jure belli ac pacis libritres (“Three Books of the Law of War and Peace”) Law: jus naturale and jus voluntarium Jus voluntarium: jus humanum and jus divinum Jus humanum: jus civile and jus gentium

18. “A people who do not want to feed their own army…”

19. Vienna Congress: 1815 • After the Congress, Europe experienced the longest period of international peace in its history: • - No war occurred between the Great Powers for 40 years • After the 1853–1856 Crimean War, there was no general war for nearly another 60 years, until the start of the First World War. • This probably makes the Vienna Congress the most successful peacemaking mechanism ever.

20. Carl von Clausewitz • (1790 – 1831) • 1832: “On War” • “Classic” definition of “war” • “Absolute” and “limited” wars

21. 1899 and 1907 Hague Peace Conferences 12 (24) August 1898 – Russian proposal 6 (18) May 1899 – conference of 26 States (110 representatives) opens at The Hague 3 conventions and 3 declarations signed by 31 December 1900.

22. 27 August 1928: Kellogg-Briand Pact Official title: The General Treaty for the Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy F. Kellogg (1856 – 1937) A. Briand (1862 – 1932)

23. “We the Peoples of the United Nations…”

24. United Nations War Crimes Commission “Aggressive war is a crime, and by its character an international crime, because it aims against peace and international order. The total aggressive war started by Germany and her allies in 1939 is additionally an international crime in its territorial extent and the number of victims of the aggression. Not only the aggressor States as such, but also their rulers and military leaders are personally responsible in the eyes of the law for the gigantic chain of crimes which compose this war and which are punishable under the criminal laws of the countries affected. The penalty according to all these laws is death”. B. Ecer (1893 – 1954)

25. Nuremberg (1945 – 1946) and Tokyo (1946 – 1948) International Military Tribunals • Crimes within the Tribunals´ jurisdiction: • Crimes against peace; • War crimes; • Crimes against humanity.

26. Establishment of the United Nations 26 June 1945: UN Charter adopted at San Francisco 24 October 1945: UN Charter entered into force