Natural Law, the Law of Nations and Realism in International Politics

Abstract

The first principles of law, state and government that, for Hobbes, had their embodiment in the condition of commonwealths were principles which he saw as given in what he stated to be the fundamental laws of nature. At the same time, the laws of nature were presented by Hobbes as laws that applied to commonwealths in the sphere of their mutual external relations, and hence as laws which, in their international application, were to be thought of as being identical with the substance of the law of nations. In this chapter, the concern lies with the principles of natural law that Hobbes specified in their status as principles of the law of nations, and so with the view that Hobbes took of international law and of its essential constituent elements. Thus there is consideration given to the idea of the international state of nature, as the form of society holding among commonwealths in which the principles of natural law were regarded by Hobbes as having application. Also, there is detailed treatment provided of the principles that Hobbes gave expression to with his statement of the laws of nature, as these served to define what stand as the leading substantive principles of public international law.