This paper represents an exercise in the conceptual analysis of norms. Concretely, it is an invitation to re-think the main lines of differentiation that can be said to separate the state, as a normative realm, from the international realm of interacting states. It raises questions about three normative standards – those of authority, responsibility, and legitimacy – that scholars and political theorists working in the tradition of modern liberalism have applied in analyses of this sort. My thesis is that the model of authority plus legitimacy, typically attributed to the state as a normative realm within liberal political theory, is not well suited for conceptualising the relations of states. An alternative model where authority is tied to responsibility may be more appropriate for making sense of the normative bounds that characterise state relations in the international realm.