noun
: a body of rules that control or affect the rights of states in their relations with each other and of individuals in their relations to foreign states and with each other when public international factors are involved that are based in the practice of Great Britain and the United States on the customs and usages of civilized nations, treaties, the acts of the executive in international matters, statutes, and judicial decisions especially including those of international tribunals and in the practice of European continental countries also on the opinions of text writers, and that are generally accepted as binding and enforceable by the participant nations — called also law of nations