Who is credited with advocating the creation of international law?

Who is credited with advocating the creation of international law?

• A. Immanuel Kant
• B. Jeremy Bentham
• C. Giuseppe Mazzini
• D. Karl Marx

Answer: (B)

The idea being tested is who first pushed for turning interactions between states into a formal system of rules. Jeremy Bentham is the best answer here because he argued for a codified international law—a universal set of rules that would govern relations among nations and provide mechanisms, like arbitration, to enforce them. Bentham treated international law as something that could be designed rationally, not just a collection of customary practices or power dynamics, and he pushed for its clear, explicit structure to reduce war and promote predictable, orderly relations between states. For context, other thinkers like Kant also contributed to ideas about how nations should relate—Kant spoke of a federation of republics and a form of cosmopolitan law—but Bentham is the one most closely associated with advocating the creation and codification of an actual system of international law itself, which is why this choice aligns with the question.

The idea being tested is who first pushed for turning interactions between states into a formal system of rules. Jeremy Bentham is the best answer here because he argued for a codified international law—a universal set of rules that would govern relations among nations and provide mechanisms, like arbitration, to enforce them. Bentham treated international law as something that could be designed rationally, not just a collection of customary practices or power dynamics, and he pushed for its clear, explicit structure to reduce war and promote predictable, orderly relations between states.

For context, other thinkers like Kant also contributed to ideas about how nations should relate—Kant spoke of a federation of republics and a form of cosmopolitan law—but Bentham is the one most closely associated with advocating the creation and codification of an actual system of international law itself, which is why this choice aligns with the question.