The Crises of the International Legal System Reflecting in Legal Terminology: An Analysis of the Legislation and Judicial Practice of Great Britain and the United States in the 19th – Early 20th Century

The historical development of the international legal system demonstrates that crises have often arisen due to insufficiently developed conceptual frameworks. Accordingly, it’s fitting to analyze the experience of its improvement accumulated by British and American courts within the given timeframe. The aim of this study is to identify the features of resolving discrepancies in English legal terminology, examining their historical function in mitigating crises affecting the international legal order. The theoretical basis of the research was the scientific works of Russian experts in international law, as well as the works of British and American legal theorists and practicing lawyers of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The research applied general scientific methods (analysis and synthesis, etc.) and methods of legal science (historical-legal, formal-legal). As a result of the study it was found that attempts to disclose the content of law of nations and determine the range of its sources were made by the British and American courts as early as the 18th century, and the position they outlined during the same period stating that the law of nations is the part of domestic law of Great Britain and the United States will prevail for the legislation and judicial practice of these states throughout the reviewed period. The change in the 19th – early 20th century of doctrinal ideas about the law of nations entailed a gradual abandonment of this term in favor of the concept of “international law”, while in parallel in the Anglo-American legal tradition there was a process of choosing among a number of closely related concepts the most suitable term characterizing the peculiarities of resolving cases with a foreign element. Finally, the fight against such phenomena as the slave trade, piracy, military smuggling, which definitely contributed to the crises of the international legal system of that time, required the British and American courts to develop appropriate definitions.