Natural Law Theory in the History of International Law in the Former Half of the Twentieth Century Revisited

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K13332
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 05030:International law-related
• Research Institution: Okayama University
• Principal Investigator: OGURI Hirofumi 岡山大学, 社会文化科学学域, 准教授 (80837419)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 国際法史 / 自然法論 / 近代国際法 / 戦間期国際法学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project aims to elucidate the substance of natural international law theories during the last years of the long nineteenth century and the subsequent interwar period, which has not been sufficiently examined so far, and to consider what significance these theories held in the history of international law.
In this project, first, among the literature published between 1776 and 1914, those that adopted natural international law are identified and their substances are elaborated. Second, conceptions of natural international law proposed during the interwar period are identified. By integrating these results, it is demonstrated that arguments based on natural international law during the interwar period can be evaluated as a "revival" of the natural international law that had originally proposed in the last decades of the long nineteenth century.

Free Research Field

国際法

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、近代国際法完成期及び戦間期における自然国際法論の内容とその系譜を主要著作の分析を通して明らかにし、それが国際法学説史においてどのような意味を有するものであったのかという点を検討することを目的とするものである。
この意味において本研究は学説史研究であり、一見すると歴史的価値しか有さないようにも考えられるが、強行規範論のように、理論的基盤を欠きながらも国際社会における公序や共同体的価値に基礎づけられた現代的な国際法論に対する理論的視座を提供し得るものでもあり、ここに本研究の歴史研究としての学術的価値のみならず創造性を見出すことができる。