ABSTRACT
Society' has been identified as a foundational concept in the development of international law, defining both state sovereignty and membership of the family of nations. The Eurocentric construct of society, and the way it shaped the fundamental elements of (public) international law, had serious consequences for First Nations. This chapter shows that the concept of society was central to the formative natural law theories of international law, influencing who was deemed to hold sovereign power, the rights flowing from sovereignty, and as a consequence the way that Indigenous Peoples were positioned within the developing Eurocentric international legal order. It then shows how society functions within their work to create a law of nations which was constructed to support European colonial expansion and the domination of Indigenous people. Francisco de Vitoria and Hugo Grotius are widely acknowledged as two of the founding scholars of 'modern international law', as it is understood within the European context.
