International law

pp. 67-84

in: Corlett, Race, rights, and justice, Berlin, Springer, 2009

Abstract

"The search for justice is the major enterprise of law, and the attempt to characterize justice is inseparably connected with that which characterizes law. Justice not only gives rise to law but arises out of law. It is the cause of law.…" Moreover, "International law is premised on the idea that all political communities have a strong interest in peace and in the protection of basic human rights, and that the interests of the members are greater than what divides them." The truth of these words justifies the inclusion of this chapter and the next in this book on some of the philosophical and ethical dimensions of justice and rights. Law and justice are so propinquently related that it is not hyperbolic to state that justice is the lineament of law in the sense that a reasonably morally sound system of law is one having the administration of justice as its primary goal.