From International Law to World Peace

Valentin Tomberg's From International Law to World Peace was written in England in 1952, when the Cold War was becoming the determining political factor throughout the world. In our own time also we teeter on the brink of war and peace--we need only call to mind the present conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine. In short, the question of establishing world peace, and the role of international law in promoting it, is more relevant than ever. Tomberg examines with great clarity and insight the history of the jurisprudence of international law from its very beginnings in antiquity up to the middle of the twentieth century. He echoes the theme of his earlier work, The Art of the Good: The Regeneration of Fallen Justice, that the modern development of law consists in its gradual degeneration. Based on Thomas Aquinas's conception of law, he sees at the top of the legal edifice the eternal law that reveals itself in the world as divine law, as that itself underlies the natural law, which in turn evokes a sense of right and justice as a basic orientation for the positive law established by humankind. Tomberg does not limit himself, however, to justifying his thesis that these stages are no longer present in law--rather, he offers perspectives as to how the degenerative process he so exhaustively diagnoses can be counteracted by a regeneration of law. May the book in your hands contribute to meeting this challenge!