How "Public" Is Public International Law? Toward a Typology of NGOs and Civil Society Actors.

The article explores the origins of public international law and outlines steps toward the recognition of humanitarian organizations and civil society as subjects of international law. Topics discussed include how states became the defining actors in international law and highlights the role of sovereign states in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the civil society in the 1859 Battle of Solferino, and nongovernmental (NGO) organizations in the adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.