WAR AND THE LAW OF NATIONS, A General History
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loginThis book is a history of war, from the standpoint of international law,from the beginning of history to thepresent day. Its primary focus ison legal conceptions of war as such, rather than on the substantive ortechnical aspects of the law of war. It tells the story, in narrative form,of the interplay through the centuriesbetween,ontheonehand,legalideasaboutwarand,ontheotherhand,statepracticeinwarfare.Neffcovers the emergence, in various ancient societies, of an associationbetween justice and warfare, which matured into the just-war doctrineof the Middle Ages. He then traces the decline of this conception ofwar in favour of a view of war as an instrument of statecraft, culmina-ting in the evolution of what becameknown as the legal institution ofwar in the nineteenth century. There is also coverage of the much-neglected topic of measures short of war, most notably of reprisals, butalso including the evolution of self-defence doctrines and practicesover the years. International legal aspects of civil wars are alsoconsidered, notably the development of recognition of belligerencyand of insurgency in the nineteenth century. The attempt by theLeague of Nations to restrict war is analysed, with an explanation ofthe deeper reasons for its failure and the way in which this paved theway for the substantial discarding, after the Second World War, of waras a legal institution, in favour of the alternate conception of aggres-sion-and-self-defence. Treatment of new approaches to civil wars after1945 and of the advent of war against terrorism brings the story to thepresent day.
