Emer de Vattel (1714–1767), in his influential work The Law of Nations, established a new international statist paradigm which broke with the classical partition of the law into the three realities of ‘persons, things and actions’...
moreEmer de Vattel (1714–1767), in his influential work The Law of Nations, established a new international statist paradigm which broke with the classical partition of the law into the three realities of ‘persons, things and actions’ (personae, res, actiones). This new paradigm substituted the state for the person, downgraded the generic concept of ‘things’ to the obligations among states in their relations, and changed the focus of the concept of ‘action’ to that of ‘war’ as a legal remedy to resolve conflicts between and among states. This international paradigm (or statist paradigm) has survived almost up to our time in international praxis. Nonetheless, today the statist paradigm appears to be in every way insufficient, since it does not consider humanity as a genuine political community, nor does it reflect the three-dimensionality of the global law phenomenon. The transformation of the law that governs our international community (international law) into a law that is capable of properly ordering the new global human community (global law) demands the creation of a new paradigm, originating in the following conceptual triad: global human community, global issues, and global rule of law. In the construction of this new global paradigm, cosmopolitan constitutionalism could play a key role.
