... institutions that formalize and enshrine the supposed rules. Mr. Bull mentions separately that rules may have the status of international law, moral standards, customs or established practices, or these can be operational rules or “rules of the game” ... ... American intellectual tradition, the phrase “rule-based order” is, strictly speaking, synonymous of “liberal world order.” Liberalism as the basis of the ideological and political vision shared by Americans goes back to the first European colonists ...
... rather one of preserving normativity.
Rules become ‘fairer’ as human civilisation develops – the reason for the rapid development of the observance and protection of human rights since the second half of the 20th century has little to do with liberalism as such
Every society needs norms. At the initial stage of human development, this role was carried out by customs – in the exact same way that customary international law helped to bring (some of the) war criminals to justice during the Nuremberg tribunals and continues to play an important role in international relations to this day (for example, in matters related to the delimitation of maritime borders)....