ABSTRACT
Morality may be distinguished as to its application in international relations theory. The distinction between the two planes of morality and legality needs to be kept in mind when seeking to identify the legal status quo in international law, particularly with regard to its non-treaty sources. Moral concepts may be or become legal, granted they have passed through either one of the processes of formation of international law. Carl Schmitt argued that public international law in the nineteenth century rested less on ideas of sovereignty and rather on a selection of specific state interests. The primary structural argument that has been made to place the interests of the individual and, thereby, moral concepts within the ambit of state interest, has been the alleged world-wide democratization of states. While an educated humanist may naturally align with what is morally opportune, states are abstract entities to which human rights are what "corporate social responsibility" is to the corporation.
