Nasty, Brutish and False: Rousseau's State in the International Order
39 Syracuse J. Int'l L. & Com. 357 (2012)
23 Pages Posted: 8 Jun 2012
Date Written: June 1, 2012
Abstract
Focusing on the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, this article offers an account of an important episode in the historical development of international legal theory: the emergence of a conception of the state as a singular agent, a fictional person that behaves differently from the people who constitute it. In the process, this article challenges prevailing interpretations of Rousseau's place in the Western tradition of international thought and also situates him in the positivist tradition of international law.
Keywords: law, international law, international legal theory, philosophy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, Hugo Grotius, state, state agency, state responsibility, history, political theory, political science, legal theory, eighteenth-century, natural law, law of nations, Emmerich de Vattel
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