ABSTRACT
Law and self-help, those seemingly contradictory concepts are, in reality, extremely closely linked. This is true, not only of the most ancient epoch of Roman law, but also of later periods. Modern international law includes a very considerable degree of self-help (retaliatory measures, reprisals, war and so on). Class rule is more far-reaching than the sphere which can be designated as the state authority's official sphere of jurisdiction. The doctrine of natural law therefore reduces the function of state power to keeping the peace, and sees the state's sole determining feature as being the instrument of law. The element of natural law in the juridical theory of the state lies much deeper than was apparent to the critics of the doctrine of natural law. The state as a power factor in internal and foreign policy – that is the correction which the bourgeoisie was forced to make to the theory and practice of its 'constitutional state'.
