For the rest, the mutual conduct of states in war (e.g. the taking of prisoners), and what a state in peacetime grants to the members of another state by way of rights for private intercourse, and so forth, rests chiefly on the customs of nations, as the inner universality of conduct that maintains itself under all circumstances.
The European nations form a family according to the universal principle of their legislation, their customs, their culture, and accordingly their conduct under international law is modified within a condition in which otherwise the mutual infliction of harms is what prevails. The relation of states to states is unstable: there is no praetor present to arbitrate; the higher praetor is solely the universal spirit that is in and for itself, the world spirit.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.