On Peace Of Westphalia

The Congress of Westphalia is one of the longest continuous peace conferences in history, and the related Peace of Westphalia brought an end to the so-called Thirty Years War of Europe. There are two treaties comprising the Peace of Westphalia, the Treaty of Muster which was signed between France and the Holy Roman Empire, and the Treaty of Osnabruk which was signed between Sweden and the Empire. The Peace is so complex that it is a fertile subject for study, especially from the combined perspectives of legal and historical, for the Peace is not only one of the key legal documents during the formative period of modern international law, but also a significant historical incident that cannot be overlooked.It is widely recognized that the Peace is the very first starting point of modern international law, for it established the principle of territorial sovereignty and the related modern nation systems. However, there recently has been a growing consensus that the Peace is not the birth certificate of modern international law. They either think there was still a long way to go until the principle of sovereignty was established, or believe that long before the Peace, the development of the modern nation-state and the decline of universal authority were already evident. Under this circumstance, there is a great need to reexamine the text of Peace, explore its historical background and theoretical basis, review the related Thirty Years War and its negotiation process, and scrutinize the decisive factors that played a key role in the conclusion of the Peace, in order to evaluate it objectively as well as gain a better understanding of the motives behind the formation of modern international law.In addition to the Introduction and Conclusion, there are four Chapters in this dissertation. Chapter One will endeavor to probe the pre-Westphalian international law, with attention to the practice in Medieval Occidental Christian Community. Drawing from natural law and universalism, the jus gentium has contained some elements similar to the law of nations as well as supranational law. The basis of medieval law of nations was provided by the consciousness of the occidental nations that they belonged together and formed a community, in which the Canon law and Roman law had played a great part in regulating interaction of political entities.with which the era of Reform had come and the religious unity had been broken resulting in many religious conflicts. The rapid economic development of mercantilism contributed to the erosion and collapse of traditional economic structures, causing the pursuit of trade interests, geographical discovery and overseas colonial expansion activities. The establishment of new Monarchy and the rise of unified nation-states, initiated the process of the centralization of nation's political rights. This series of major historical events constituted the cornerstone for the development of the law of nations and also set the stage for the subsequent analysis of Spanish scholastic philosophers to seek a new order to promote inter-state relations, the Christian unity as well as to regulate the distribution of power among the emerging nations.Chapter Two will present a discussion on the details of the Thirty Years'War and the negotiation of the Peace. With the continuous religious conflicts, increasingly serious imperial constitutional problems coupled with a complicated international background, the Defenestration of Prague of1618initiated one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history. It involved almost all German estates and European powers. The war assumed a complex nature, multiple participants, overlapping interests and extensive scope, leading to the significance of peace negotiation, establishing many precedents for future diplomatic practices and international legal development. What's more important, the congress was called up by the Pope, however, since the respublica Christiana had lost its unity the Pope too had lost his authority leading and guiding the conference and guaranteeing order. Some Protestants refused to admit the authority of the Pope, who even avoided having any contact with them. The Pope's legate did not succeed in mediating the conflict. The papacy thereby was downgraded to the status of a second-class international actor.Chapter Three will provide an analysis on the text of the Peace and the content related to modern international law. Amongst its immediate results, attention will be attached to the recognition of subjects of international law, sovereignty, balance of power, and collective security, which are all characteristic of modern International law. At the same time, there are some feudal factors during the congress and in the Peace which will be examined as well. In the Peace, they still begin by evoking the Holy Trinity. Even though, during its performance, the Peace has been condemned by the Pope, it maintained its force, and the "anti-protest"clause inserted in the Peace indicated that religious and conventional questions were no longer decisive, that they were deprived of the sharpness and weight which they had possessed in the preceding age.Chapter Four will focus on the impact of the Peace on modern international law. The Peace has contributed to the establishment of modern international legal principles, such as Sovereignty equality, Non-force, Collective Security. Besides, the Peace also has helped development of the law of treaty, diplomacy and war with some practices and rules. Additionally, it has had a major impact on the practice of international law. Since the Peace, it has ushered in the era of'national interest', has contributed to the emergence of the modern international system of territorial states, in which actors were making every effort to maximize their state interests. States began to take the maintenance of collective security as a legitimate reason to interfere with others' internal affairs, and the balance of power influenced the pattern of Europe and even the international community.The study of Treaty of Muster and Treaty of Osnabru has provided the confirming conclusion to the formation of modern international law. Although the orthodoxy according with which the Peace recognized and applied for the first time the idea of sovereignty and hence constitute the birth certificate is being doubted and challenged, also, the foundation of modern international law had already established before the Peace, with the increasing mature structure of the modern state system. However, from the point of view of the whole congress and negotiation, the strong feature of 'national interest'and the cooperation platform indeed constituted a magnificent step in German and European political, religious and legal history, especially in the development of modern international law. Even the current international society follows the spirit of the Peace of Westphalia. Accordingly, it worths the evaluation of cornerstone of modern international law.