ВРЕДНОСНА САДРЖИНА МЕЂУНАРОДНОГ ПРАВА
THE VALUE CONTENT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

Summary/Abstract: Evaluations of various foreign political actions are sometimes liable to an overestimation of the importance of international law. This attitude is here called the normative approach to international relations. Its source must be looked for in the fact that, for many, international law has a general axiological function. In contradiction with domestic law international law is not in a position to carry out this function. Domestic law always expresses the interests of a given ruling class in the form of legal norms, and always defends and ensures the power of this class. International law on the other hand, at least as far as its universal basic norms are concerned, exclusively expresses a peculiar amalgam or compromise of the interests of antagonistic classes, without prescribing a preference for either. As a result the universal international system of norms does not contain any norms or groups of norms which express the long term, strategic interests of any particular class. Those norms therefore, which form the backbone of the present system of international law, are neutral and indifferent from the aspect of the direction of human progress or the class content of development. The axiological meaning of international law must therefore be more narrowly defined. Universal norms may be neutral as regards the final autcome of the class strugle but not when it comes to the weapons employed in it. After all they universally prohibit the use of force and interference in the affairs of states whose sovereignity must be respected, thus limiting the use of such tools equally for everybody. As a result the universal normative system of international law is only partially suitable when judging the attitude and behaviour of states.

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