Some Dilemmas of an Internationalist in a World of State Egoism

The validity of any statement about international law turns on the meaning one is prepared to give the term. To say that the obligation to pay prompt, adequate and effective compensation for the expropriation of alien property derives from the body of traditional customary international law pertaining to the responsibility of states, or that the obligation derives from domestic (constitutional), and not international law at all, is to speak without clear referent. Clarity of both intent and ideology are absolute necessities.