INTERNATIONAL LAW

IN A MULTICULTURAL WORLD
International Law in a Multicultural World

 Adda B. Bozeman

 She observed a significant incongruency between a culturally

diverse world on one hand and an international law drawn from
the context of “Euro-American jurisprudence” on the other.

 She believes the fissures of cultural diversity among legal

cultures of Africa and Asia, the communist world and the Western
world will not permit the world to evolve as one legal system

 She concluded that the dominance of a Western political is

passing into history and that the rest of the world will not abide by
Western standards of international law.
International Law in a Multicultural World

 Cultural differences among national societies do not

undermine international law.

 He believes that “the weakness of international law stems less

from different outlooks and much more from similar but
clashing interests anatagonistically pursued.”
International Law in a Multicultural
World
 Third World Countries (LDC’s)

Have remarkably embraced elements of Eurocentric

sytem and are using international law and diplomacy to
redress their grievances against Western states.
 European Communist States
These former communist states seem eager to embrace
the rules and norms of their past Western opponents as
long as doing so brings peace and prosperity.

 Cultural Regions
They have their own values and practices that set them
apart from the international system at large concerning
international law.
 International Law in a Multicultural World

 Latin America
• The “Calvo Doctrine,” claims that a state is
not responsible for harms done against
The “Calvo Doctrine,” claims that a state is
 on its soil during an insurrection.
aliens

• not responsible
Inter-American for
Convention for the harms done against aliens
Granting
on ofits1928
of Asylum soil during an insurrection.

 Inter-American Convention for the Granting of

Asylum of 1928
International Law in a Multicultural World
 Legal cultures around the world contain
different histories, attitudes, and principles.
International Law in a Multicultural World
 Common law countries cover contracts, torts
(damages), and remedies, not only through laws
of legislative bodies but through precedents
drawn from specific cases and disputes.
Common law also derives from long sanding
custom.

 Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand,

and the United States are states with common
law.
International Law in a Multicultural World
 Civil law has a long tradition, going back at least to the Roman
Empire.

 Civil law depends on extensively coded rules and regulations

that attempt, well ahead of any anticipated problems, to cover
every aspect of regulated life, including business activities.

 European, Latin American, and some African and Asian states

have civil law legal traditions.

 Germany, as a civil law state, has great importance because of

its central role in the European Union and as the leading state
inducing Russia and Eastern Europe to join the capitalistic world
system.
International Law in a Multicultural World
 Socialist law (or communist law) is a legal tradition
that began with the Russian revolution of 1917.

 The socialist law tradition called for highly

centralized economies, usually planned in five-year
time segments. State ownership of almost all
property left little tolerance or private property.

 Marxist, anticapitalist values spread to China, Cuba,

Eastern Europe, North Korea, Vietnam, and a few
countries in Africa.
International Law in a Multicultural World
 Islamic law is God’s law revealed in the Quran, and Islamic law is
often one and the same as secular law in Islamic states.

 The content of Islamic law poses some difficulties for

international trade, such as treating interests on loans as usury
and making interest rates illegal. Contracts on the other hand,
are similar enough as a concept between the West and Islamic
states to allow a huge amount of trade.

 The Islamic law tradition is important because it applies in a large

number of countries, including most of the countries of North
Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Indonesia, and Malaysia in
Southeast Asia.
International Law in a Multicultural World

Three levels of compliance in the context of

international law:

• First, we can speak of legal norms being so

fundamental that compliance is thought of as universal
whether or not a particular state has consented to the
norm.

• Second, a general international law derives from a

multilateral treaty wit many signatories. Most of the
world accepts this kind of law and, at some time in the
future, this law has a chance to become universal.

• Third, there is a particular international law that binds

only two states or a limited group of states.

Some international law are germane only for a specific cultural

region.
International Law in a Multicultural World

In the current era, we rightfully

pay attention to the multicultural
nature of the world, and many
scholars are sensitive to different
cultures, arguing they have equal
worth.

Despite these fair-minded academic views, Western conquest

of the past and more recently, Western capitalism and
democracy appear to be the driving forces behind the
transcendence of Western norms of law over those of other
cultures such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam.