The `International Community': Facing the Challenge of Globalization 4 Conclusion To sum up, the world of the famous `Lotus principle', according to which states are only bound by their express consent, seems to be gradually giving way to a more communitarian, more highly institutionalized international law, in which states `channel' the pursuit of most of their individual interests through multilateral institutions. Even if private actors, whether groups or individuals, have not yet become regular subjects of general international law, the system as a whole increasingly permeates state boundaries for the sake of protection of individual and group rights. Therefore, we suggest adopting a `Grotian' view, but to mix it, as it were, with elements of both `Vattelianism' and `Kantianism', and with an increasing pull towards institutionalization. In any case, the concept of an `international community' contains as much aspiration as reality. To quote the former President of the International Court of Justice, Mohammed Bedjaoui, in his Declaration to the 1996 Advisory Opinion on Nuclear Weapons,42 an opinion which perfectly demonstrates the contradictory elements inherent in contemporary international society: 43 Despite the still modest breakthrough of `supra-nationalism', the progress made in terms of the institutionalization, not to say integration and `globalization', of international society is undeniable.... The resolutely positivist, voluntarist approach of international law still current at the beginning of the century ... has been replaced by an objective conception of international law, a law more readily seeking to reflect a collective juridical conscience and respond to the social necessities of States organized as a community. 42 Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion, Declaration of President Bedjaoui, para 12, ICJ Reports (1996) 226, at 270, 271 (para. 13). 43 Official English translation. In the French original, the passage reads: `En dépit de la percée encore limitée du "supra-nationalisme", on ne saurait nier les progrès enregistrés au niveau de l'institutionnalisation, voire de l'intégration et de la "mondialisation", de la société internationale.... A l'approche résolument positiviste, volontariste du droit international qui prévalait encore au début du siècle ... s'est substituée une conception objective du droit international, ce dernier se voulant plus volontiers le reflet d'un état de conscience juridique collective et une réponse aux nécessités sociales des États organisés en communauté.
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