The role of cities in an international legal framework: historical context

The paper is devoted to a consideration of the distinguishing characteristics of a city as a powerful actor within the international legal framework that has been formed over decades and centuries of world history. The development of cities, their economic growth and hierarchization of social structures has led towards the division of labor, the nature of urban leadership provoking political revolution, and the formation of city states as well as the mutual impact between a state and a city. Thereafter, the problem of their loss of autonomy and independence because of their inability to cope with problems of a transnational nature dominated by threats, and how demographic changes are dealt with are a vital part of this work.