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law of nations

law of nations noun: synonym of international law.

Noun

law of nations (uncountable)

  1. Synonym of international law.
    • A person commits piracy who does any act that, by the law of nations, is piracy.2020, Parliament of Singapore, “Penal Code 1871”, in Republic of Singapore Government Gazette, 2020 R. Ed. edition, 130B(1), page 87
  2. (Early, Modern, archaic) The shared set of legal principles said to be recognized by most peoples in the world; natural law.
    • And this is the Law, not of the Persians alone (which yet was the Law of a hundred twentie seven Provinces;) nor ours alone (and so may seeme to be the Law of Nations) but, that which strikes it home, by vertue of this enrolement here, is the Law of God; […]1616 August 5, Lancelot Andrewes, “A Sermon Preached Before the Kings Maiestie at Burleigh neere Okeham […]”, in XCVI. Sermons, 2nd edition, published 1632, page 848
    • But this is monstrous, and unchristian, to say, That servants are wholly at their Masters command; and that by the Law of Nations: What? to murder, steal, lye at their commands? So they must, if this assertion of his be generally true; Is there no difference between the servant, and the asse, by...1652, Daniel Cawdrey, Herbert Palmer, Sabbatum Redivivum: Or the Christian Sabbath Vindicated […], volume 2, page 146

law of nations meaning in Kannada

law of nations in Kannada

ಅಂತರರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ ನ್ಯಾಯಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ

Synonyms of law of nations

Origin of law of nations

Calque of Latin iūs gentium, originally meaning legal principles that are general to humanity. The sense “international law” became standard in the 17th–18th centuries, partly from reanalysis as referring to the law that pertains to nations as distinct entities, and partly from the supposition that any law governing relations between states must transcend the states themselves. See also English jus gentium, directly borrowed.

Questions about law of nations

What does law of nations mean?
Law of nations means synonym of international law.
What is law of nations in Kannada?
Law of nations in Kannada is ಅಂತರರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ ನ್ಯಾಯಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ. See Law of nations meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is law of nations?
Law of nations is a noun.

Words near law of nations in the dictionary

  1. Law of Jante
  2. law of large numbers
  3. law of love
  4. law of majestas
  5. law of markets
  6. law of nations
  7. law of nature
  8. law of non-contradiction
  9. law of noncontradiction
  10. law of nontriviality
  11. law of obligations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: law of nations (page history and authors); law of nations (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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