Lex pacificatoria

{{short description|Concept in international relations}}

The lex pacificatoria is a Latin neologism, which translates as 'pacific law' or the 'law of the peacemakers'; it refers to the law relating to agreements or treaties ending a state of war or establishing a permanent peace between belligerents, as articulated by state and non-state peacemakers, such as peace negotiators.{{Citation|last1=Fellmeth|first1=Aaron X.|title=Lex pacificatoria|date=2009|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195369380.001.0001/acref-9780195369380-e-1278|work=Guide to Latin in International Law|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195369380.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-536938-0|access-date=2020-04-13|last2=Horwitz|first2=Maurice|url-access=subscription}} As such, it is a set of normativizing practices, the ‘industry standards’ of peacemakers. In its relationship with traditional legal doctrines such as the jus ad bellum, it is both incorporated in, and shapes, interpretations of binding legal instruments, and it can also be determinative of, or influence, court judgments.{{Cite journal|last=Bell|first=Christine|title=Peace settlements and international law: from lex pacificatoria to jus post bellum|journal=Research Handbook on International Conflict and Security Law|year=2013|pages=499–546|doi=10.4337/9781849808576.00020|isbn=9781849808576|url=https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/14539618/Bell_Peace_Settlements_and_International_Law.pdf}} The term was popularized by the legal scholar Christine Bell in her 2008 book On the Law of Peace: Peace Agreements and the Lex Pacificatoria.{{Cite book|last=Bell, Christine, 1967-|title=On the law of peace peace agreements and the lex pacificatoria|date=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|oclc=1131990137}}{{Cite journal|last=O'Donoghue|first=Aoife|date=2009|title=On the Law of Peace: Peace Agreements and the Lex Pacificatoria|journal=International Criminal Law Review|volume=9|issue=5|pages=867–871|doi=10.1163/156753609x12507729201552|issn=1567-536X}} Bell contrasts the notion with the Law of War, stressing that the art of post-war peace deserves as much consideration as the waging of war, and the notion is related to the jus post bellum, the concept of justice after war, with which it has been critiqued.{{Cite book|last=Cryer|first=R.|title=Morality, jus post bellum, and international law|date=2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-02402-1|editor-last=May|editor-first=Larry|pages=223–249|chapter=Law and the jus post Bellum: Counseling caution|oclc=793947148|editor-last2=Forcehimes|editor-first2=Andrew}}