... legalpositivism. War was now seen unashamedly as a clash of rival nationalinterests rather than as the pursuit of heavenly ideals or (more mundanely) of the rule of law. For war-makers, it was a laissez-faire ... ideas in the abstract. It will also deal with the reciprocal impact of theory onpracticeandofpracticeontheory.Wewillseethat,overthecourseofhistory, war has moulded law at least as surely as law ... halt-ing, metamorphosis of war from a tool of God into a tool of men. As a result, the law relating to war had a distinctly dualistic character at thistime, smacking partly of nature and partly of culture....