Abstract: Amid profound changes unseen in a century, building a community with a shared future for humanity represents China’s response to the question of where humanity is heading - a question of global, historical, and contemporary significance. Whether this concept may develop into a fundamental principle of international law should be examined in light of the features and functions of principles in international law and within the shared argumentative framework for identifying principled norms in contemporary international law. In theory, building a community with a shared future for humanity is guided by the common values of humanity, advances the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, and may find institutional support in the duty of international cooperation and the protection of the interests of the international community as a whole. In practice, relevant expressions have appeared in China’s major laws and policy documents, as well as in bilateral and regional cooperation instruments and certain United Nations texts, indicating an emerging practical basis for sustained usage and a gradually formed common understanding. On this basis, relevant formulations may be incorporated into treaty preambles, provisions on objectives and purposes, and clauses of principle, while being used consistently in other international texts. Through treaty interpretation, cooperative procedures, and reasoning in dispute settlement, their normative effects may be gradually accumulated, thereby creating conditions for their further development toward a fundamental principle of international law.

Key Words: building a community with a shared future for humanity, fundamental principles of international law, common values of humanity, general principles of law, global governance

Author: He Tiantian, associate research fellow, CASS Institute of International Law;

Source: 5 (2026) Chinese Journal of Law.