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International law

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Law

   Providing a constitution for public international law, the United
   Nations was conceived during World War II
   Providing a constitution for public international law, the United
   Nations was conceived during World War II

   International law can refer to three things. These are,
     * public international law
     * private international law or conflict of laws
     * the law of supranational organizations.

Public international law

   Public international law (or international public law) concerns the
   relationships between sovereign nations. It is developed mainly through
   multilateral conventions, though custom (state practice with opinio
   juris) can play an important role. Its modern corpus started to be
   developed in the middle of the 19th Century. The two World Wars, the
   League of Nations and other international organizations such as the
   International Labor Organization all contributed to accelerate this
   process and established much of the foundations of modern public
   international law. After the failure of the Treaty of Versailles and
   World War II, the League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations,
   founded under the UN Charter. The UN has developed new standards, such
   as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Other international norms
   and laws have been established through international agreements; e.g.
   the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war or armed conflict, as well
   as by other international organizations such as the ILO, the World
   Health Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the
   International Telecommunication Union, UNESCO, the World Trade
   Organization, and the International Monetary Fund. Thus later law is of
   great importance in the realm of international relations.

Conflict of laws

   Conflict of laws, or "private international law" in civil law
   jurisdictions, is less international than international law. It is
   distinguished from public international law because it governs
   conflicts between private persons, rather than states (or other
   international bodies with standing). It concerns which jurisdiction a
   legal dispute between private parties should be heard in, therefore
   raising issues of international law. Today corporations are
   increasingly capable of shifting capital and labor supply chains across
   borders, as well as trading with overseas corporations. This increases
   the number of disputes of an inter-state nature outside a unified legal
   framework and raises issues of the enforceability of standard
   practices. Increasing numbers of businesses use commercial arbitration
   under the New York Convention 1958.

Supranational law

The European Union

   The European Union is the first and only example ( so far) of a
   supra-national legal framework, where sovereign nations have pooled
   their authority through a system of courts and political institutions.
   It constitutes a new legal order in international law for the mutual
   social and economic benefit of the member states.

East Africa Community

   At present the East African Community can no longer be ignored as the
   developments at their Headquarters in Arusha in Tanzania and the three
   founder states, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have so far signed a treaty
   to refound the Community. The process of admission to the East African
   Community has ended, and two new member states, Burundi and Rwanda,
   will join July 2007. This project's aim is the welfare of the peoples
   of East Africa, and to benefit this by pooling their efforts in order
   to facilitate their presence in the competitive world market.

History

   From tribal prehistory through the modern international community,
   groups of people have had to interact. Until very recently, these
   interactions have not been controlled by any established rules. Peoples
   may have obeyed their own social mores, but were not bound by any
   independent principles. As peoples began to aggregate into larger
   kingdoms and empires, the need for agreement and cooperation between
   peoples became important. The need for real international codes did not
   develop, however, until the rise of the nation-state in the Middle
   Ages, when nation-states began to recognize others as sovereign equals.

   Early History

   The ancient Greeks before Alexander formed many small states that
   constantly interacted. In peace and in war, an inter-state culture
   evolved that prescribed certain rules for how these states would
   interact. These rules did not apply to interactions with non-Greek
   states, but among themselves the Greek inter-state community resembled
   in some respects the modern international community.

   The Roman Empire did not develop an international law, as it acted
   without regard to any external rules in its dealings with those
   territories that were not already part of the empire. The Romans did,
   however, form municipal laws governing the interactions between private
   Roman citizens and foreigners. These laws, called the jus gentium (as
   opposed to the jus civile governing interactions between citizens)
   codified some ideas of basic fairness, and attributed some rules to an
   objective, independent "natural law." These jus gentium ideas of
   fairness and natural law have survived and are reflected in modern
   international law.

   Nation-States

   After the fall of the Roman Empire and the collapse of the Holy Roman
   Empire into independent cities, principalities, kingdoms and nations,
   for the first time there was a real need for rules of conduct between a
   large international community. Without an empire or a dominant
   religious leadership to moderate and direct international dealings,
   most of Europe looked to Justinian's code of law from the Roman Empire,
   and the canon law of the Catholic Church for inspiration.

   International trade was the real catalyst for the development of
   objective rules of behaviour between states. Without a code of conduct,
   there was little to guarantee trade or protect the merchants of one
   state from the actions of another. Economic self-interest drove the
   evolution of common international trade rules, and most importantly the
   rules and customs of maritime law.

   As international trade, exploration and warfare became more involved
   and complex, the need for common international customs and practices
   became even more important. The Hanseatic League of the more than 150
   entities in what is now Germany developed many useful international
   customs, which facilitated trade and communication among other things.
   The Italian city-states developed diplomatic rules, as they began
   sending ambassadors to foreign capitals. Treaties -- agreements between
   governments intended to be binding -- became a useful tool to protect
   commerce. The horrors of the Thirty Years' War, meanwhile, created an
   outcry for rules of combat that would protect civilian communities.

   International practices, customs, rules and treaties proliferated to
   the point of complexity. Several scholars sought to compile them all
   into organized treatises. The most important of these was Hugo Grotius,
   whose treatise De Jure Belli, Ac Pacis Libri Tres is considered the
   starting point for modern international law.

   Grotius to World War I

   Before Grotius, most European thinkers treated law as something
   independent of mankind, with its own existence. Some laws were invented
   by men, but ultimately they reflected the essential natural law.
   Grotius was no different, except in one important respect: Unlike the
   earlier thinkers, who believed that the natural law was imposed by a
   deity, Grotius believed that the natural law came from an essential
   universal reason, common to all men.

   This rationalist perspective enabled Grotius to posit several rational
   principles underlying law. Law was not imposed from above, but rather
   derived from principles.

   Foundation principles included the axioms that promises must be kept,
   and that harming another requires restitution. These two principles
   have served as the basis for much of subsequent international law.

   Apart from natural-law principles, Grotius also dealt with
   international custom, or voluntary law. Grotius emphasized the
   importance of actual practices, customs and treaties -- what "is" done
   -- as opposed to normative rules of what "ought to be" done.

   This positivist approach to international law strengthened over time.
   As nations became the predominant form of state in Europe, and their
   man-made laws became more important than religious doctrines and
   philosophies, the law of what "is" similarly became more important than
   the law of what "ought to be."

   With respect to war, the positivist approach permitted any state to go
   to war for any reason. "Is" rather than "ought" meant that there was no
   distinction between a "just" and an "unjust" war. Justness was not a
   consideration. The devastation of the First World War would change
   that.

   The League of Nations

   Following World War I, as after the Thirty Years' War, there was an
   outcry for rules of warfare to protect civilian populations, as well as
   a desire to curb invasions.

   The League of Nations, established after the war, attempted to curb
   invasions by enacting a treaty agreement providing for economic and
   military sanctions against member states that used "external
   aggression" to invade or conquer other member states.

   An international court was established, the Permanent Court of
   International Justice, to arbitrate disputes between nations without
   resorting to war. Meanwhile, many nations signed treaties agreeing to
   use international arbitration rather than warfare to settle
   differences.

   International crises, however, demonstrated that nations were not yet
   committed to the idea of giving external authorities a say in how
   nations conducted their affairs. Aggression on the part of Germany,
   Italy and Japan went unchecked by international law, and it took a
   Second World War to end it.

   The Postwar Era

   After World War II, as after the First World War and the Thirty Years'
   War, there was a strong desire to never again endure the horrors of war
   endured by the civilian populations. The League of Nations was
   re-attempted through another treaty organization, the United Nations.

   The postwar era has been a highly successful one for international law.
   International cooperation has become far more commonplace, though of
   course not universal. Importantly, nearly two hundred nations are now
   members of the United Nations, and have voluntarily bound themselves to
   its charter. Even the most powerful nations have recognized the need
   for international cooperation and supports, and have routinely sought
   international agreement and consent before engaging in acts of war.

   International law is, of course, only partly about the conduct of war.
   Most rules are civil, concerning the delivery of mail, trade, shipping,
   air travel, and the like. Most rules are obeyed routinely by most
   countries, because the rules make life easier for all concerned. The
   rules are rarely disputed. But some international law is extremely
   political and hotly debated. This includes not just the laws of warfare
   but also such matters as fishing rights.

   Modern Customary International Law

   An important development in modern international law is the concept of
   "consent." Before World War II, a nation would not have been considered
   to be bound by a rule unless it had formally agreed to be bound by it,
   or it was already customarily abiding by that rule. Now, however,
   merely consenting to an international practice is sufficient to be
   bound by it, without signing a treaty.

   An evolution of the positivist approach of Grotius, the concept of
   consent is an element of customary international law. Customary
   international law is essentially what states actually do, plus the
   opinio juris of what states believe international law requires them to
   do.

   Customary international law applies to every country, regardless of
   whether they have formally agreed to it. At the same time, all
   countries take part in forming customary international law by their
   practices and decisions. As new rules arise, countries accept, reject
   or modify them. When most countries are following a rule, everyone else
   will be held to it. Therefore, doing nothing is the same as consenting.
   Nations that did not take action may find themselves bound by an
   international law that is not to their advantage.

   Customary international law can be overruled, however, by a treaty. For
   this reason, much customary international law has been agreed to
   formally by treaties between nations.

   Modern Treaty Law Treaties are essentially contracts between countries.
   They are agreements by which the parties intend to be bound. If
   treaties are broken, their effectiveness is weakened because there is
   no guarantee that future promises will be kept. So there is a strong
   incentive for nations to take treaties very seriously.

   Modern nations engage in a two-step procedure for entering into
   treaties. The first step is signing the treaty. Being a signatory to a
   treaty means that a country intends to enter into the agreement. The
   second step is ratifying the treaty. A country that has ratified a
   treaty has gone beyond merely intending to enter into the agreement,
   and is now bound by it. This is a critical distinction, and sometimes a
   point of confusion. A nation may be a signatory to a treaty for many
   years without ever having ratified it.

   Each country ratifies treaties its own way. The United States requires
   the two-thirds support of the Senate, the upper body of its
   legislature, for a treaty to be ratified; both the executive and the
   legislature must agree. In Canada, on the other hand, ratification is
   strictly an executive action, and no parliamentary approval is required
   before the nation is bound.

   Modern treaties are interpreted according to the 1969 Vienna Convention
   on the Law of Treaties. This convention is so widely accepted that even
   nations that are not parties to the convention follow it. The
   convention's most important and sensible rule is that a treaty should
   be interpreted according to the plain meaning of its language, in the
   context of its purpose, and in good faith. This prevents much
   squabbling and unnecessary nit-picking. It also makes treaty authors
   spell out what they are trying to accomplish, to make interpretation
   easier, in a non-binding "preamble."

   In the modern world, international law is more important than ever.
   Even the most powerful countries rely on it, and seek to comply with it
   -- and suffer consequences if they ignore it.

   Law - See also Portal
   Legal subjects Constitutional and Administrative law · Criminal law ·
   Contract · Tort · Property · Trusts and Equity · Public international
   law · Conflict of laws · Supranational law
   Further disciplines Labour law · Human rights · Procedure · Evidence ·
   Immigration law · Family law · Wills · Commercial law · Corporations
   law · Intellectual property · Unjust enrichment · Restitution · Tax
   law · Banking law · Competition law · Consumer protection ·
   Environmental law
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   Comparative law
   Legal theory History of Law · Philosophy of law · Economic analysis of
   law · Sociology of law
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