International Law

International law is different from national law it is

not derived from actions of a legislative branch or a
central authority it is derived from two factors:
Traditions
Agreements singed by states.
International law is also differs in the difficulty of
enforcement, which depends not on the power and
authority of central government but on reciprocity,
collective action and international norms.
 Sources of International law
• Laws with in states comes from central
authorties ,legislature or dictators so the question is this
that what are the sources of international law so the
international law resets on different basis .The security
council can compel certain actions by states,but these are
commands rather than laws ,they are specific to situation.
• There are four sources of international law which are
given below
• Treaties
• Custom
• General principles
• Legal scholarship
 Treaties
• Treaties are singed by the states and these are the most
important source, international treaties now fill more than
a thousand thick volumes, which tens of thousands of
individual agreements. A principle in international law
states treaties ,once singed and
• ratified must be observed. States violate the terms of
treaties they have singed only if the matter is very
important or the penalties for such a violation seems very
small.
• Treaties and other international obligations such as debts
are binding on successor government whether the new
government takes power through an election ,a coup ,or a
revolution.
• Custom:
• custom is the second major source of international law, if
state behave toward each other in a certain way for long
enough ,their behavior may become generally accepted
practice with the status of law.
• General principles of law:
• general principles of law also served as a source of
international law. Actions such as theft and assault
recognized in most national legal system such as crimes
tend to have the same meaning in an international
context.Beyound treaty and custom the invasion violated
international law because of the general principle that one
state may not overrun it’s neighbor’s territory and annex it
by force.
• legal scholarship:
• The fourth source of international law ,recognized
by the world court as subsidiary to the others is
legal scholarship .often international law lags
behind changes in norms ,law is quite traditional
bound .Certain activities such as espionage are
technically illegal but are so widely condoned that
they cannot be said to violate international
norms .
• Example:
• China’s shooting of student demonstrates in 1989
violate international norms but not international
law.
 Enforcement
• International law is much more difficult to enforce because there is
no world police force .Enforcement of international law depends
upon the power of states themselves, individually or collectively, to
punish transgressors.
• There are some factors which tell us why states follow the
international laws:
• states follow international law most of the time because they want
other states to do so. The reason neither side in world war 2 used
chemical weapons was not that anyone could enforce the treaty
banning use of such weapons.
• States follow international law because of general and long term
costs that could come from disregarding international law. If a states
fails to pay its debts it will not able to borrow money on world
markets.
• .
• If states cheats on the terms of treaties it
sign ,other states will not sign future treaties with
it. The resulting isolation could be very costly.
• A state that breaks international law may also face
a collective response by a group of states, such as
the imposition of sanctions- agreements among
other states to stop the trading with the violator to
stop some particular trade commodity.
• In late 2002 a north Korean freighter was caught
on route to yemen with a hidden load of 15 scud
missiles. The US fighting the war on terrorism ,had
an evident national interest in preventing such
proliferation
 World Court
• An international law has developed; a general world legal
framework in which states can pursue grievances against
each other has begun to take shape. The rudiments of
such a system now exist in the world court the world
court is the branch of UN.
• Only states ,not individual or businesses ,can sued in the
world court. When a state has a grievance against
another ,it can take the case to the world court for an
impartial hearing.
• The world court is the panel of 15 judges elected for nine
years terms by the majority of both the security council
and general assembly.
• Great weakness of world court:
• The great weakness of world court is that states
have not agreed in a comprehensive way to subject
themselves to its jurisdiction or obey its
decisions .Almost all states singed the treaty
creating the courtbut only 3rd signed the optional
clause in the treaty.
• Main use of world court:
• The main use of world court now is to arbitrate
issues of secondary importance between countries
with friendly relations overall. The US has settelled
commercial dispute with Canada and with Italy
through the court.
• Laws of diplomacy:
• Diplomats have the right to occupy an embassy in the host country as
through it were their own state territotory.On the ground of US
embassy in Kuwait for instance the laws of the US and those not of
Kuwait apply.The US armed forced occupy the territory and those of
Kuwait may not enter permission.
• Diplomatic immunity:
• Diplomates enjoy diplomatic immunity enev then they leave the
embassy grounds .The right to travel varies from one country to
another diplomats may be restricted to one city or free to roam
about the countryside.If they commit crime from jaywalk to murder
then may not be arrested.All the host country can do it take away a
diplomate’s accreditation and expel the person from the host
country.
• To break diplomatic relations:
• To break diplomatic relations means to withdraw ones diplomats
from state and expel its diplomats from ones owmn state .This tactic
is used to show displeasure with another government.when two
countries lack in diplomatic relations they often do business through
a 3rd country called interest section in the 3rd country’s embassy.