Pacta Sunt Servanda As the Intersubjective but Universal Principle: Oppenheim’s Common Consent Within the Family of Nations
24 Pages Posted: 3 Apr 2019
Date Written: September 13, 2018
Abstract
This article aims to explore Lassa Oppenheim’s theory of common consent as the basis of international law and emphasises how the theory does not assume that international law is universal or that common consent is a universalising concept. A careful reading of his pieces reveals that Oppenheim’s common consent theory was devised to ensure the ‘intersubjectivity’ of international law — neither objective (completely independent from State consent) nor subjective (subject to the arbitrary will of States). Instead, international law has its basis in the mutually regulated consent of States within the Family of Nations, that is, in common consent.
Keywords: Positivism, Lassa Oppenheim, common consent, family of Nations, intersubjectivity
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