An Amodernist Approach to International Law: The Law of the Sea in the Amarna Letters

Abstract: It is a widely held assumption that international law is one of the unique achievements of modern society. This modern(ist) paradigm postulates that international law is a product of the European/Western civilisation that has flourished in recent centuries. Even ‘critical scholars’ of international law only suggest that it was discovered in the sixteenth century. The present chapter challenges these ‘civilisation-based/centric’ approaches and suggests that ‘international law’ has existed whenever and wherever two or more mutually recognising polities existed and governed their interactions. As is demonstrated with the example of the Law of the Sea in the Amarna letters, each and every epoch came with its own peculiarities, customs, formalities and scale.