Morality and Responsibility of Rulers ― European and Chinese Origins of a Rule of Law As Justice for World Order

The history of ideas on rule of law for world order is a fascinating one, as revealed in this comparative study of both Eastern and Western traditions. This book discerns 'rule of law as justice' conceptions alternative to the positivist conceptions of the liberal internationalist rule of law today.

The volume begins by revisiting early-modern European roots of rule of law for world order thinking. In doing so it looks to Northern Humanism and to natural law, in the sense of justice as morally and reasonably ordered self-discipline. Such a standard is not an instrument of external monitoring but of self-reflection and self-cultivation. It then considers whether comparable concepts exist in Chinese thought. Inspired by Confucius and even Laozi, the Chinese official and intellectual elite readily imagined that international law was governed by moral principles similar to their own. A series of case studies then reveals the dramatic change after the East-West encounters from the 1860s until after 1901, as Chinese disillusionment with the Hobbesian positivism of Western international law becomes ever more apparent.

What, therefore, are the possibilities of traditional Chinese and European ethical thinking in the context of current world affairs? Considering the obstacles which stand in the way of this, both East and West, this book reaches the conclusion that everything is possible even in a world dominated by state bureaucracies and late capitalist postmodernism. The rational, ethical spirit is universal.

Edited by Anthony Carty, Professor of Law at the Beijing Institute of Technology School of Law, and Janne Nijman, Professor of History and Theory of International Law at the University of Amsterdam, Senior Research Fellow of the Amsterdam Center for International Law, and Academic Director of the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague.

Professor Anthony Carty is Professor of Law at the Beijing Institute of Technology School of Law. Professor Carty has published widely in the field of critical theory and international law.

Professor Janne Nijman is Professor of History and Theory of International Law at the University of Amsterdam and a Senior Research Fellow of the Amsterdam Center for International Law. She is the Academic Director of the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague, and is co-editor of New Perspectives on the Divide Between National and International Law.