Introduction

The problem of defining international law The term ‘international law’ was first used by Jeremy Bentham in 1780 in his Introduction to the Principles o f Morals and Legislation. Since about 1840, in the English and Romance languages it has replaced the older terminology ‘law of nations’ or ‘droit de gens’ which can be traced back to the Roman concept of ius gentium and the writings of Cicero.1 In the German, Dutch, Scandinavian and Slavic languages the older terminology is still in use (‘Volkerrecht’, ‘Volkenrecht’, etc.).