It has been the object of International Lawyers to assist in determining the nature and the obligations of this 'human society'. Since its foundation, International Law has assumed the existence of a great community of peoples—'the Family of Nations', 'the Society of Nations', to which rights in common pertain, and on which obligations in common rest. Keep faith, and aim at peace.[1] These are the two lasting injunctions of him whom we may still call 'Father of the Law of Nations'.[2] The end of war is peace.[3] The history of International Law
- ↑ De Iure Belli ac Pacis, Preface and bk. iii, ch. xxv, §§ 1–3, 7.
- ↑ In the introduction to the first volume (p. 12) of the Grotius Society (founded 1915), Professor Goudy says of the De Iure Belli ac Pacis, 'That great work must ever be regarded as the matrix of our science, and must be resorted to for the statement of fundamental truths.' 'International Law, if it is to have any enduring authority, must be based on the fundamental principles of human rights and must give effect to the common welfare of nations. All assertions of right arising from patriotism or "my country before everything" (über alles) must be swept aside as noxious hindrances to progress. The ideal of perpetual peace among civilized nations is indeed still a long way off—much further than pacificists too hastily suppose—but it is none the less the ideal of International Law. It is
The vision whereunto
••••Toils the indomitable world.'The following Papers published in the volumes of the Grotius Society have value for the historical student: vol. ii (1917), 'The Principles underlying the Doctrine of Contraband and Blockade', by J. E. G. Montmorency; 'International Leagues', by W. R. Bischopp; vol. iii (1918), 'Treaties of Peace' (not 'as a means of terminating war', but 'as instruments of peace'), by Commander Sir Graham Bower; vol. iv (1919), 'The League of Nations', by Lord Parmoor; 'The Treaty-making Power of the Crown', by Judge Atherley Jones; 'Some European Leagues of Peace', by W. Evans Darby; 'Divergences between British and other Views of International Law', by Georges Kaechenbeeck; 'The Freedom of the Scheldt', by Albert Maeterlinck and by W. R. Bischopp, and discussion.
- ↑ Grotius, op. cit., § 2, cites Aristotle, Sallust, St. Augustine.
