Conclusion

Abstract

The thinkers considered in this volume laid the foundations for the law of nations in its distinctively modern form and tradition. In doing this, they elaborated some of the core principles that belong to what is the system of public international law of this the era of the United Nations. The conceptualization of the law of nations as relied on by the thinkers as from Vitoria and Suarez through to Wolff and Vattel was the natural law conceptualization. As we have explained it, this conceptualization answered to the aspirations as implicit in the ideal of international law, and most particularly so as to the considerations to do with the universality of the law obtaining in the international sphere and with the sort of binding normative force that this law was to have for the states and rulers subject to it. In addition, the natural law conceptualization of the law of nations, as to its universalism and its normative dimension, conformed with, and gave support to, the principles of international order as these are affirmed in the tradition of international thought and practice with which the international law ideal is closely associated: the tradition of liberal internationalism.