FAMILY OF NATIONS

family of nations.Int’l law. The community of countries to which international law applies. •

This term is now obsolescent. It is increasingly rejected as Eurocentric.

“ ‘The family of nations’ is an aggregate of States which, as the result of their historical

antecedents, have inherited a common civilisation, and are at a similar level of moral and political

opinion.” Thomas E. Holland, The Elements of Jurisprudence 396 (13th ed. 1924).[Blacks Law 8th]