The application of a state's criminal law by its
criminal courts is simply the exercise or
actualization of prescription: both amount to an
assertion that the law in question is applicable to
the relevant conduct.
But international law, as defined before 1800,
proved an uncomfortable fit with expansionist claims
to empire, and the nineteenth century saw a
redefinition of its philosophical foundations in
order to make it applicable to colonial and
semicolonial contexts.
For example, at each deliberation cycle one may
apply only one applicable PG-rule (instead of
applying all applicable rules), execute one plan
(instead of the first action of all plans), and
process one event.