Political Science 3201F/G Chapter Notes -Class Conflict, Proletarian Internationalism, Brezhnev Doctrine
1 May 2013
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Document Summary
International law does not exist in an intellectual vacuum. Law attempts to provide authoritative models of how people should behave. Instrumental approaches to international law that do not exhaust the scope of theoretical writing. An understanding of legal theory is crucial to the legal enterprise and to the practical applicable of the law. International law is not law but merely amounts to positive morality, this view is no longer generally accepted. Kant cautions however that a theory is not enough. The abstract knowledge provided by a theory must be supplemented by an act of judgement whereby the practitioner distinguishes instances where the rule applies from those where it does not. Nevertheless a theory is necessary because it provides us with the intellectual blueprint necessary to understand the work or some specific aspect of human affairs. Theory makes data comprehensible by providing a structure for the organization of a given discipline or body of knowledge.
