From International Law to World Peace

<p>Valentin Tomberg's <em>From International Law to World Peace</em> 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 <em>The Art of the Good: The Regeneration of Fallen Justice</em> 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 <em>eternal law</em> that reveals itself in the world as <em>divine</em> <em>law</em> as that itself underlies the <em>natural</em> <em>law</em> which in turn evokes a sense of right and justice as a basic orientation for the <em>positive</em> 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 <em>regeneration</em> of law. May the book in your hands contribute to meeting this challenge!</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>