Role of european values in shaping international law

Abstract

Values are often taken to mean moral ideas, attitudes to the world, or norms and behaviors that are considered ‘good’ in a particular group, community or organization. They’re usually abstract nouns, like ‘authenticity’ or ‘respect’. It’s better to think of values as the things that are most important. They’re the things that guide our decisions. And the most crucial: values reflect our sense of right and wrong. Law is shaped by the underlying values of society. Law is not built and defined solely by rule making, by formula or by inexorable command, but rather it is organized around, and derived from, inhering values and serves as an expression or manifestation of natural human and societal bonds of conduct.