African History Commons^™

African Origins Of International Law: Myth Or Reality?, Jeremy I. Levitt

Journal Publications

This Article reconsiders the prevalent ahistorical assumption that international law began with the Treaty of Westphalia. It gathers together considerable historical evidence to conclude that the ancient world, particularly the New Kingdom period in Egypt or Kemet from 1570-1070 BCE, deployed all three of what today we would call sources of international law. African states predating the modern European nation state by nearly 6000 years engaged in treaty relations (the Treaty of Kadesh), and applied rules of custom (the MA 'AT) and general principles of law (as enumerated in the Egyptian Bill of Rights). While Egyptologists and a few international …