A Century of International Law and International Legal Relations. Romania as an Expression of the National will and of the Progress of Law

Abstract

One hundred years ago, by the decisions of the Paris Conference and the Peace Treaties (1919-1920), under the irresistible action of the will of the peoples of free national assertion, a major principle prevailed in European and international governance: that of nationalities with its corollary the right of peoples to decide their own fate, the nation-state or its formulas became the rule of the existence of the state, under the impact of the horrors of the first world conflagration, international law was rapidly evolving towards the exclusive status of peace and cooperation, war being soon ended outside the law and qualified as an international crime, and international relations experienced the first institutionalization with a universal vocation through the creation of the League of Nations. Peace ceased to be conceived as a mere absence of war, becoming closely linked to social justice, meaning a State organized by the law of international relations, based on trust and cooperation, and tending to become a normal existence of international life. Collective security as a “universal peace technique” and multilateralism were imposed as accredited political and diplomatic practices.