PIL TUTORIAL

1. What is international law?

International law consists of rules and principles governing the relations and dealings of
nations with each other, as well as the relations between states and individuals, and
relations between international organizations.

2. Differences between Private and Public International Law?

The rules that governs the relation and obligations between nations are part of the public
international law branch and the rules that governs the relation between different legal
jurisdictions and natural persons, companies, corporations and other legal entities are part
of private international law branch.

3. Differences between national and international legal system.

National laws have jurisdiction limited to their country but International law has
international jurisdiction. Here are the additional differences;

International law is mostly the outcome of treaties and conventions whereas National law is
mostly the outcome of the constitution and acts. For example: The Convention on rights of
the children is what can be considered International law on the rights of the children.
However the national law may be more or less inspired by the international laws. Such as
our country Nepal has implemented the right to information as a fundamental right based
on the Article 19 of UDHR.
As already mentioned, the jurisdiction of the International and national law is different.
National law is bound to be implemented within the national border or with whichever
country there is the treaty of extradition. International law has no bound. some of the
examples of it can be the Nuremberg and Tokyo trails on the commission of war crimes.
International law is considered as “soft” law by some law scholars as it's implementation is
based solely on morality as opposed to the municipal law where it is compulsory for every
 citizen as well as aliens to abide by the country's law. And the other point is that the
international law is mostly the outcome of treaties and conventions where a country is free
to be or not be the party of. However from the other perspective International law is as
binding as any national law given that the national laws(mostly) are the outcome of the
ratification of international laws.

4. Major legal systems of the World?

There are generally considered to be five legal systems in the world today: civil law, common
law, customary law, religious law, and mixed legal systems

5. Legal system practised by Malaysia practice of International law in Malaysia.

Malaysia for example, practices the mixed legal system which includes the Common Law,
Islamic law and Customary Law. Malaysia’s legal system comprises laws which have arise
from three significant periods in Malaysian history dating from the Malacca Sultanate, to the
spread of Islam to Southeast Asia, and following the absorption into the indigenous culture
of British colonial rule which introduced a constitutional government and the common law.
Malaysia’s unique legal system is designed to balance the delicate racial and religious needs
of its heterogeneous people. The Malaysian legal system law can be classified into two
categories which is the “Written” and “Unwritten law”.

6. Sources of International Law.

The main sources of international law are treaty law, international customary law and
general principles of law recognised by civilised nations.