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8 Va. J. Int'l L. 300 (1967-1968)
Towards a Theory of International Obligation

handle is hein.journals/vajint8 and id is 310 raw text is: Towards a Theory of International Obligation OSCAR SCHACHTER* If my subject seems too large or ambitious for a commemorative essay, my excuse is that Hardy Dillard always has that effect on me: he gets me to think about fundamentals, and about the imponderables that tend to enter our assumptions undetected. Remarkably, he is able to do this both with a light touch and with concrete, down-to-earth cases. His legal discourse-I know of none more engaging or il- luminating-is built around these cases; they are culled from the com- mon law, from history and biography, from international or military experience, from joke-books, plays and the sports pages. They are all somehow relevant to the issues that are important-the deep and per- plexing questions about the nature and quality of our individual lives and the ordering of society through political and legal processes. A poker game, a fast buck operation, an international river dispute, become revelatory and instructional, since in his conversation they are infused with insights of Whitehead, Santayana, the contemporary logicians and linguistic analysts, and above all, with the wit, eloquence and wisdom of one who has been endowed with an extraordinary sensitivity to the problems and aspirations of his fellowmen. I. THE PRACTICAL IMPORT OF THEORY It seems especially fitting, in the light of Dean Dillard's abiding concern with the philosophical and jurisprudential problems of in- ternational law, to devote this essay to some reflections on a basic- some would say meta-juridical-question that appears to be at the heart of some of our present intellectual perplexities in international law. As a subject, the foundation of obligation is as old as interna- tional law itself; it had a prominent place in the seminal treatises of the founding fathers-Suarez, Vittoria, Grotius, Pufendorf et al -and it remained a central issue in the great controversies of the nineteenth century.' In our century it has had a lesser place; it was largely overtaken by the discussion of sources and evidence, cen- tered around Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court.2 Although subordinated, it was not neglected and each of the lead- ing scholars of the twentieth century found himself impelled to ad- *Mr. Schachter is the Deputy Executive Director and the Director of Re- search of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), an associate of the Institut de Droit International, an editor of the American Journal of International Law, and the President of the American Society of International Law for 1968-1969. 1. See P. CORBETT, LAW AND SOCIETY IN THE RELATIONS OF STATES 17-90 (1951). 2. C. PARRY, SOURCES AND EVIDENCE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW (1965); M. SOREN- SEN, LES SOURCES DU DROIT INTERNATIONAL (1946).

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