The International Community, The Natural Law and International Law

THERE ARE MANY VOICES in the international stage, and the voice of the Church is often confused with them or is drowned out in the din of competing voices. As we discussed in the prior post, the Church's vision of international relations between nations recognizes the importance of nations states and peoples, yet also does not absolutize them. The latter (absolutization of peoples or of nation-states) is a form of idolatry, and frequently leads to the oppression of minority peoples, whether they be racial, cultural, or religious. As extreme examples of the latter, we might point to the Turkish genocide of the Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, and Dersim Kurds, the German genocide of the Jews and the Slavs.

The Church is not in the business of advocating a one-world-government based upon false values. And she carefully distinguishes between international government and international order. There can be an international order without an international government.

What the Church seeks is that international relations be seasoned with the salt of the natural moral law, a law which is universal in scope, and which comprehends all men bar none.

To bring about and consolidate an international order that effectively guarantees peaceful mutual relations among peoples, the same moral law that governs the life of men must also regulate relations among States: 'a moral law the observance of which should be inculcated and promoted by the public opinion of all nations and of all the States with such a unanimity of voice and force that no one would dare to call it into question or to attenuate its binding force.'

(Compendium, No. 436) (quoting Pius XI, Radio Address Dec. 24, 1941)

Underlying any international order, then, must be the recognition of a Law above all law, a God above all nations. "The universal moral law written on the human heart, must be considered effective and indelible as the living expression of the shared conscience of humanity, a 'grammar' on which to build the future of the world." (Compendium, No. 436)

Cumaean Sybil, Michaelangelo (Sistine Chapel)

The Church is therefore an opponent of any international order, and even more of a one-world government, that does not recognize the universal moral law. She would oppose making a bunch of Leviathans into one great Leviathan. She seeks to tame the Leviathans of the world with moral suasion. She seeks to have law, which is to say reason, not force govern relations among nations.

Universal respect of the principles underlying 'a legal structure in conformity with the moral order' is a necessary condition for the stability of international life. The quest for such stability has led to the gradual elaboration of a 'right of nations' (ius gentium), which can be considered as 'the ancestor of international law.'

(Compendium, No. 437) (citations omitted)

The Church's emphasis on the natural moral law as being the cement for any authentic international order relies on both faith and reason:

Juridical and theological reflection, firmly based on natural law, has formulated 'universal principles which are prior to and superior to the internal law of States,' such as the unity of the human race, the equal dignity of every people, the rejection of war as a means for resolving disputes, the obligation to cooperate for attaining the common good and the need to be faithful to agreements undertaken (pacta sunt servanda). This last principle should be especially emphasized in order to avoid 'temptation to appeal to the law of force rather than to the force of law.'

(Compendium, No. 437) (citations omitted)

Might does not make right, and this is as true within nations as among them. And the Church knows that it is preferable to have law govern the relations among nations than to invoke the bloody principle of war, which is to bring in the rule of the dice or the rule of the powerful and to pay obeisance to the rule of irrationality. Inter arma enim silent leges.*

The Church is mother of all mankind, and, to quote the Roman poet Horace, bella detesta matribus.** And so, as mother, she would with remind all men with Virgil's words placed in the mouth of the pagan Cumean Sybil, who the Middle Ages believed had also prophesied the birth of Christ: Bella, horrida bella.*** The Church therefore always urges another option to war if it be possible.

To resolve the tensions that arise among different political communities and can compromise the stability of nations and international security, it is indispensable to make use of common rules in a commitment to negotiation and to reject definitively the idea that justice can be sought through recourse to war. "If war can end without winners or losers in a suicide of humanity, then we must repudiate the logic which leads to it: the idea that the effort to destroy the enemy, confrontation and war itself are factors of progress and historical advancement."†

(Compendium, No. 438) (citations omitted)

If war is to be avoided, but right still rule, then something else must take its place to solve disputes between nations. The only other something that exists is law. And so the Church seeks to have a "primacy of law," as distinguished from a primacy of force or violence, to govern relations among nations. Within the confines of her vision--which is based upon Christian truth and the natural moral law--the Church advocates some sort of "reformulation" of international organs so that it is not recourse to war, to violence, or even the threat of violence that resolves disputes, which often is the law of the more powerful against the weaker without regard to truth or justice, but the rule of law.

In order to consolidate the primacy of law, the principle of mutual confidence is of the utmost importance. In this perspective, normative instruments for the peaceful resolution of controversies must be reformulated so as to strengthen their scope and binding force. Processes of negotiation, mediation, conciliation and arbitration that are provided for in international law must be supported with the creation of "a totally effective juridical authority in a peaceful world."

(Compendium, No. 439) The Church simply extends here the model we take for granted within states (the rule of law, rather than the rule of the mob or the rule of tyranny) to relationships between states.

Progress in this direction will allow the international community to be seen no longer as a simple aggregation of States in various moments of their existence, but as a structure in which conflicts can be peacefully resolved. "As in the internal life of individual States ... a system of private vendetta and reprisal has given way to the rule of law, so too a similar step forward is now urgently needed in the international community." In short, "international law must ensure that the law of the more powerful does not prevail."

(Compendium, No. 439) (citations omitted)
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*Cf. Cicero, Pro Milone ("Silent enim leges inter arma") IV.10.
**Cf. Horace Ode 1 ("bellaque matribus detestata")
***Cf. Virgil, Aeneid, 6.86 (so says the Cumaean Sybil in her prophecy) "Wars, grim wars, I see, and the Tiber foaming with streams of blood." (trans. H. R. Fairclough) (bella, horrida bella / et Thybrim multo spumantem sanguine cerno)
†Obviously, this language is hortatory and invokes an ideal. The Church is no fool, and she knows that, in a world where sin all-to-often gains the upper hand, sometimes recourse to war is a moral necessity. In fact, in the very Compendium where these anti-war sentiments are expressed, we find express treatment of the Christian just war theory. See Compendium No. 500.