War as a Means of International Legal Communication (According to N. A. Zakharov’s Concept)

The paper examines the concept of international legal communication as articulated by the Kuban scholar N. A. Zakharov, who investigated issues of interna tional law in the early 20th century. Zakharov formulated general principles of inter national law, though his primary focus was on international legal conflicts and their resolution. In his works, he endeavored to provide a retrospective analysis of the institutionalization of means and methods for resolving such conflicts and, drawing from his extensive experience, identified trends in the development of international law and inter-state interaction. Despite emphasizing the necessity of exclusively peaceful means for resolving international legal disputes, Zakharov also acknowledged the existence of coercive methods, including reprisals that could manifest through organized military actions. Notably, Zakharov did not categorize war as a legal phenomenon, asserting that it represents the most primitive aspects of human nature. He considered this manifestation to be inevitable, leading states to resort to war as a means of international legal communication. Thus, the role of international law lies in minimizing the destructive consequences associated with the use of such means. Moreover, Zakharov predicted an increasing importance of conciliatory procedures and methods for resolving international legal conflicts, recognizing their moral foundation while deliberately sidestepping the intricacies of the power dynamics among various states.

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