Occasional Papers [ No-4,2012]

Abstract

Any human society, in order to qualify as society, has to be endowed with a body of rules applicable universally throughout that society, to maintain a certain minimum public order for ensuring the rule of law and to guarantee the welfare of its constituent members. Hence, the famous Roman dictum, ubi societas ibi jus. International society is no exception in this respect. International society, though it is called a “society”, has traditionally been organised in a different way from domestic society in that it is governed by a system of partition of competence among a number of sovereign Nation States, which coexist side by side. It is described as a “community”, but it has essentially been a society of sovereign Nations. Thus international law as the regulatory system of this society has been a body of rules binding primarily upon States as members of this community. At the same time, the international community as society, like any other human society, consists ultimately of human individuals living in different parts of the world with distinct histories, traditions and cultures, and in different geographical conditions. Hence, nations, regions, and other groups of individuals retain distinct identities which they preserve through this international system