Everything about International Law totally explained
International law is the term commonly used for referring to the system of implicit and explicit agreements that binds together nation-states in adherence to recognized values and standards, differing from other legal systems in that it concerns nations rather than private citizens. However, the term "International Law" can refer to three distinct legal disciplines:
- public international law, which involves for instance the United Nations, maritime law, international criminal law and the Geneva conventions.
- private international law, or conflict of laws, which addresses the questions of (1) in which legal jurisdiction may a case be heard; and (2) the law of which jurisdiction(s) apply to the issues in the case
- supranational law or the law of supranational organizations, which concerns at present regional agreements where the special distinguishing quality is that laws of nation states are held inapplicable when conflicting with a supranational legal system.
Public International law
Public international law (or international public law) concerns the relationships between subjects of international law, including sovereign nations, international organizations, and in some cases, movements of national liberation (
wars of national liberation) and armed insurrectional movements (see
insurgency). The norms of international law have their source in either custom (consistent state practice with
opinio juris), or conventional agreements, for example, treaties (
treaty).
International law has existed since the
Middle Ages (see
Islamic international law), but much of its modern corpus began developing from 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 UNO has developed new advisory standards, such as the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Other international norms and laws have been established through international agreements; for example 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
The conflict of laws, often called "private international law" in
civil law jurisdictions, is less international than public 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 the questions of which jurisdiction should be permitted to hear a legal dispute between private parties, and
which jurisdiction's law should be applied, 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 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
(External Link
) for the mutual social and economic benefit of the member states.
East Africa Community
There are ambitions to make the East African Community, consisting of
Kenya,
Tanzania,
Uganda,
Burundi and
Rwanda, a political federation with its own form of binding supranational law by
2010.
Further Information
Get more info on 'International Law'.
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