Essay On International Law

International Law

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International law is ideally made by sovereign states to be used by sovereign states. International law concerns itself with matters such as diplomacy, state territorial integrity and military issues. The effectiveness of any international law is mainly facilitated by the participation of individual countries in making it (Schreuer 2011, 4). Countries are unlikely to concern themselves with legal norms unless it is within their interests to do so and they have a willingness to adopt these norms as laws. However, this means that many international laws are blocked or delayed by states if it interferes with their interests. An example is the debate on climate change. Industrialized countries, which are considered the major polluters, are reluctant to adopt laws that may harm their interests. Without the approval of such states, there can be no progress in the making and adoption of international law.

International law depends on a huge part on the consent of states. Provision of this consent by states emerges from a complex communication process. The process of communication and negotiation typically leads to certain outcomes. One such result of this process is in the mode of an explicit treaty, which imposes certain obligations on states (Bethlehem 2008, 14). The treaty law constitutes a major part of the modern international law. In addition to treaties, other agreements and documents serve as guidelines on how states should behave. It is vital to note that these guidelines are not necessarily legally binding. There are many sources of international laws and states choose to interpret and adopt them in different degrees. The international classification of international law is for...

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... world’s foremost power which is responsible for much of global security has no faith in the Security Council to provide security for it. It has therefore decided to source for its own security needs. This gives the impetus to the UN to try to redeem its image as a precious and vital instrument in saving succeeding generations from war (Annan 2003, 4). An empirical study by Schildkraut shows that the UN Charter has never ruled over the use of force. This rule has been provided for by a long established set of customary principles (Schildkraut 2007, 83). If one holds the view that international law has been governed by state behavior, then the Bush Doctrine has had little effect. Indeed, if any other country had similar powers and position as the United States, they would have reacted to the threat in a similar way, regardless of the United Nations Charter.