About some approaches to the international law in British scientists’ researches (part I)

The purpose of the research. At the present time there is a shortage of scientific researches devoted to the concepts of the international law of foreign countries. At the same time, there is a significant need for such works, since any interstate cooperation, as well as confrontation, requires a detailed knowledge of the approaches to the international law of the relevant country. In this context Great Britain stands out. Positions of Great Britain continue to have a significant impact on the formation of the approaches to the international law of the Anglo-Saxon legal family states. Largely due to the ideas of the British the foundations of the pan-Western system of views on the international law were laid. This article deals with the interpretation of various international law issues by the representatives of scientific schools of several universities in Great Britain. The positions of these scientists concerning the essence and meaning of the international law, its application are of interest from the point of view of their comprehension on the basis of Russian approaches. That is the purpose of this article. Results. The approaches of British scientists to the international law considered in the article demonstrate both similarities and differences in comparison with the domestic international legal doctrine. These include: the vision of the international law as simply a set of rules or as a complex system; the role of normativity in the international law; analysis of some of the weak and strong sides of the international law; international law criticism of the foreign policy courses of certain countries, including Great Britain and the Unites States; consideration of Russia as a country that supports special, far from Western, approaches to the international law.