To the Origins of International Law (on the Article of Professor M. I. Rostovtsev “International Relations and International Law in the Ancient World”)

Abstract

The paper provides detailed comments on the article of professor M. I. Rostovtsev (1870–1952) “To the Origins of International Law” published in Paris in 1921 where the author contests the belief established in legal science, according to which the international law originated in the Middle Ages. According to M.I. Rostovtsev, there are no forms or guiding principles in the sphere of international relations and international law which could not have been found in the ancient times. One should agree with such statement of a question because international relations emerged in the extreme antiquity could not be implemented without their statutory regulation. However, there is still an open question as to from which period separate rules regarding cross-border relations can be called international law in its genuine sense.

Keywords:

international legal literature of the Russian community abroad, international law, international private law, professor M.I. Rostovtsev, history of international relations, history of international law, the Ancient World, the Middle Ages, baron M.A. Taube, professor A.N. Mandelshtam, guiding principles of international law, antiquity, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, legal state of the foreigners, professor G.S. Starodubtsev, “prototype”, “precursor”, “brairds” or “germs” of international law