Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

tium when they described the legal relations between the Roman state and other states. This legal order, like the civil law branch, is rooted in “natural reason.”65 The German word for public international law, Volkerrecht ¨ (peoples’ law), derives from this aspect of jus gentium.66 The same is true of the French droit des gens.67 The latter type of jus gentium concerned itself mainly with questions of war and peace. Initially, the question of whether or not to go to war was governed by sacral law, the jus fetiale.68 It required strict adherence to rituals, forms, and symbolic acts. The person acting for the populus Romanus acknowledged in an oath that Jupiter had the right of retribution if it turned out that the war was unjust.69 Thus, one is not dealing with an international legal order, but rather with a municipal order concerning international affairs. When Rome extended its reach beyond Italy in the 2nd and 3rd centuries B.C., the sacral law was replaced by the secular order of the jus gentium. 70 Here, legal principles similar to the contemporary system of state responsibility developed. However, breaches of the law could result in only one consequence: The Romans considered war a tool that determined legal disputes between peoples. The jus gentium was the municipal instrument that determined whether the war was “just.” Formally, a bellum justum required repeated threats of war (bellum denuntiari) followed by a declaration of war by word and deed.71 Substantively, war could be waged only against a legitimate opponent (iustum piumque bellum) against whom a reason to go to war (rerum repetitio) existed.72 The phrase rerum repetitio refers to the illegal withholding of things or persons. Yet, hostile acts against Romans or Roman vassals were also considered reasons for war. So was the killing or injuring of Roman ambassadors.73