ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the status of non-European peoples at different junctures in the development of thought about international law related to the expansion of Europe. It focuses on the people deemed by Europeans to be unqualified for inclusion in the society of states and consequently excluded from entitlement to the rights Europeans normally accorded to each other. The chapter expresses that with regard to non-Europeans international law was both a universalising discourse and a form of cultural imperialism that defined the normative foundations for the society of states created by the expansion of Europe. It presents reasons for focusing on international law and provides an account of how European conquest was treated and justified by international lawyers. By restricting community to the society of 'civilised' states international law mirrored the conception of non-European peoples as being 'just backward children' that did not need to be considered in the same way as Europeans.
