"International law is the body of legal rules which apply between sovereign states and such other…

Georg Schwarzenberger defined international law as "the body of legal rules which apply between sovereign States and such other entities as have been granted international personality". The definition is wider than the older State-only definitions because it includes other entities with international personality.

Oppenheim's classic definition speaks of the rules "considered legally binding by civilised States in their intercourse with each other"; Whiteman compiled the Digest of International Law.