ABSTRACT
There is a very complex network of relations at the international level in which the states, as well as the other entities and persons, engage. During the period described in this book as the third wave of international law development, the international network shifted to an even more complicated web of relations, in which numerous entities and persons participate. Nevertheless, only a few of them have acquired the status of a genuine member (actor) of the interstate legal system elevating them to the status of a subject of international law. Hence, in this book, the interstate system refers to the systemic and arranged relationships between those subjects, i.e. the states and other subjects of international law. In international law, the notion of the subject of international law is defined in the rather complex terms, which primarily means that a subject is a person who participates in the law-making process and affords itself the right to apply the legal norms. On the whole, international law indeed is an interstate law. Hence, a principal subject is a state.
