The Empirical Dilemma of International Law

The author explores the empirical dilemma of international law; looking at international law based on consent and international customary law. The author concludes that international law faces a debilitating dilemma. On the one hand, its claim to objective authority as positive law rest upon its foundation in the customary practices of nations followed out of a sense of legal obligation. On the other hand, one can solve this problem by disconnecting international law from its foundation in custom, by looking back to its historical basis in natural law.