er of schemes to realise this purpose
have been published which in my opinion go much too far because they
comprise proposals which are not realisable in our days. You know that
not only an International Court of Justice and an International Council
of Conciliation have been proposed, but also some kind of International
Government, some kind of International Parliament, an International
Executive, and even an International Army and Navy--a so-called
International Police--by the help of which the International Government
could guarantee the condition of permanent peace in the world.

II. You believe no doubt, because nearly everyone believes it, that the
conception of a League of Nations is something quite new. Yet this is
not the case, although there is something new in the present conception,
something which did not exist previously. The conception of a League of
Nations is very old, is indeed as old as modern International Law,
namely about four hundred years. International Law could not have come
into existence without at the same time calling into existence a League
of Nations. _Any kind of an International Law and some kind or other of
a League of Nations are interdependent and correlative._ This assertion
possibly surprises you, and I must therefore say a few words concerning
the origin of modern International Law in order to make matters clear.

III. In ancient times no International Law in the modern sense of the
term existed. It is true there existed rules of religion and of law
concerning international relations, and ambassadors and heralds were
everywhere considered sacrosanct. But these rules were not rules of an
_International_ Law, they were either religious rules or rules which
were part of the Municipal Law of the several States. For instance: the
Romans had very detailed rules concerning their relations with other
States in time of peace and war; but these were rules of Roman law, not
rules of the law of other countries, and certainly not _international_
rules.

Now what was the reason that antiquity did not know of any International
Law?

The reason was that between the several independent States of antiquity
no such intimate intercourse arose and no such common views existed as
to necessitate a law between them. Only between the several city States
of ancient Greece arose some kind of what we should now call
'International Law,' because these city States formed a Community
fostered by the same lan