Of Spiders and Bees 189joining states.” He was explicitly opposed to the idea of a world govern-
ment, or “universal monarchy,” which he feared would degenerate into “a
soulless despotism.”
In place of the commands of a global monarch— or of Wolff ’s basic norm
of the quest for perfection— Kant proposed that his world federation would
be ruled by what he called, rather grandly, “the transcendental formula of
public right.” Th is was the axiom that “[a]ll actions aff ecting the rights of
other human beings are wrong if their maxim is not compatible with being
made public.” In other words, no individual state’s system of rules could
make any claim for its holder that the holder was not willing to concede to
its fellow actors. Th e essence of the idea, in short, was reciprocity (substan-
tially in the spirit of Kant’s better- known categorical imperative in general
moral philosophy). In the best rationalist fashion, this single norm was seen
as the cornerstone of international law.
Peace was to be maintained, Kant proposed, by means of what he called
“an equilibrium of forces and a most vigorous rivalry” between these in de-
pen dent states. Th is “equilibrium” and “rivalry” must not, however, be seen
in terms of power but rather in terms of right. What was envisaged was a sys-
tem in which the freedom of action of each actor would be retained to the
greatest extent compatible with the rights and interests of fellow actors. In
other words, there was to be a maximization of freedom of action in the
aggregate.
It cannot be said that Kant’s ideas had any great impact in their time. But
some of them would appear in future international legal thought, although
applied in a very diff erent spirit. Most outstandingly, his idea of law as a
mechanism for maximizing freedom of action— within a certain overall ethi-
cal framework— would have a great impact in the following century and would
continue to the present time.
Pragmatists—Tools of the Trade
In the course of the eigh teenth century, the pragmatists may be said to have
gradually gained the upper hand over the rationalists. A variety of factors
were at work in this pro cess. For one thing, the pragmatic writing tended to
be more useful to men of aff airs, even if it involved compromising the purity
of the law of nature. Rationalists were more inclined to see themselves as