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Similarities of municipal law and international law
Similarities of municipal law and international law
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In the quote by James Brown Scott “International law is part of our municipal law; that our courts take judicial notice of.” Scott illustrates how judicial decisions have to consider the same human rights conditions and scope of international and municipal law. There are cases where municipal and international laws disagree with the interpretation of each law, whether is customary law, human rights law, or international treaty law. The verdict of the following cases The Paquete Habana, The La Grand Case, and the Abu Ghraib case will illustrate the different approaches for each case and how their decisions were made. There are several cases that highlight the conflict of different interpretation between international law and human rights law by international and municipal courts. The courts taking on the above stated cases had to battle each other on the final verdict because it violated or over stepped other previous decisions. The political and legal contexts of these cases have to be analyzed in order to understand the decisions that were made in these cases as previously mentioned.
The statue of the international court of justice is a charter that was created by the United Nations with provisions of and accordance “article 38." In Article 38 of the ICJ it articulates that its legal purpose for its existence was to rationally generalize the international rights of identifying the attaining powers to the states. Many of the provisions in article 38 of the ICJ are intended to set a precedent in future cases that arise at an international level.
In a brief summary of the three cases, I will be identifying the international and municipal courts discrepancy to resolve these cases in order to avoid future frustration in similar case...
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... be interpreted as such. The international law in most cases does exceed a countries law because it protects the human rights of all. In the La Grand case the Scott quote stands corrected, meaning that the international law and municipal can work together but international law exceeds and mandates over municipal as shown in the La Grand case of a simple failure to inform the defendant of their rights. The Abu Ghraib case the verdict in the case simulated the Scott quote because it illustrated how courts have similar interpretation of the law and how it can’t be manipulated to a certain group’s advantages.
The Scott quote and the three cases that were identify all accurately highlight the importance of not only the municipal and international laws but also the manner in which all courts interpret the laws to take notice of the imperfections in the judicial systems.
In 1977, Nils Christie wrote the essay, “Conflicts as Properties”, in which he discusses the four problems that occur within the western legal system. The four problems that affect the legal system in four ways is that the courts are always located in areas that people may not have easy access to locate, the courthouses are challenging to find your way around, the parties are irrelevant to much of the proceedings and the proceedings makes conflicts between the actual parties involved turn into conflicts between the State and the parties 2.
Next in 1899, 1907, 1954 the International Peace Convention (originally The Hague Convention) where held because, in the last wars multiple cultural, art, literature and artifacts pieces were destroyed. Also, the community notice the rise in technology of weapons. The rules of war from the two convention consist of National and Cultural Symbols, Chemical and Biological warfare, Wounded and Sick Soldiers, POW (Geneva III), Civilians and Occupation, and Cultural Property. All of those are rules of war and the are severe consequences if they are broken. The United Nations and International Court of Justice (also known as the World Court) will take care of war crimes. Multiple other organizations were made by the U.N. to take care of certain wars for people such as, Nazi's and The Civil war in Yugoslavia. All countries are suppose to respect and follow the rules of war no matter the
The valid point is concerned with Goodhart’s article “Determining the Ratio Decidedi of a Case. Simpson accepts the Goodhart theory proposition that ‘‘the ratio decidendi of a case can be defined as the material facts of the case plus the decision thereon.” He points out that there is an opposed theory, which maybe conveniently called ‘classical theory’ which is that “the ratio is ‘the principle of law which the judge considered necessary to his decision.’’ The Supreme Court’s approach to the illegality defence in decisions, bringing tension in judicial decision between the need for legal certainty and need to achieve fair result. Therefore, quantitative research on whether extra-legal factors influenced judicial decision making has found no universally applicable answers as some variables can explain certain judicial behaviour in some situations but, both in others. When interpreting and applying legislations, to decided case, especially when cases involve ambiguous aspect of a statute which is statutory interpretation; which over time, various methods and construction has fallen in and out of favour including the primary rules (literal,mischief
...es’ constitutions, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, according to Wright, “pressed for the acceptance of its rulings in Argentine courts” (166). Not only international efforts, but also domestic efforts, to apply international jurisprudence to local courts were on the rise. For example, in 1995, CELS launched its “program for the application of international law to human right in local courts” based on the amendments to the Argentine constitution (Wright 166). Just as well, human rights lawyers pushed “courts to embrace the international principle that crimes against humanity cannot be amnestied” (Wright, 167). In sum, the International human rights lobby wanted each country to mold its human rights jurisprudence around the rulings of international human rights law, and domestic actors adopted the same goal.
According to Article 38 of the 1946 Statute of the International Court of Justice, the Court shall apply “international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted as law” in its decisions (Kritsiotis 123). In other words, the International Court of Justice cites customs as a formal source of law. According to Roberto Unger, author of Law in a Modern Society, customary international law is best defined as “any recurring mode of interaction among individuals and groups, together with the more or less explicit acknowledgement of these groups and individuals that such patterns of interaction produce reciprocal expectations of conduct that out to be satisfied (Shaw 72-73). In other words, customary international laws are primarily concerned with how and why sates behave in a particular manner. Customs derive from the behavior of states (state practice) and the subconscious belief that a behavior is inherently legal (opinio juris). Evidence of state behavior is documented in the decisions of domestic courts, international courts, and international organizations. Unlike treaty law, customary laws are binding on all states. Additionally, if a treaty derives from a custom it is also binding on all states. Some of the international court cases that have been instrumental in the development of customary international law include the Nicaragua v. United States case, the Anglo-Norwegian Fisheries case, the Scotia case, the Asylum case, the Paquete Habana case, and the Lotus case.
The unanimous accepting of this issue by Judges of the International Court of Justice gives a good sense of feeling to all human beings of the mankind, that the world is still on the “right” side of road, which is leading to human dignity, rule of law and human rights.
45 Oona Hathaway, ‘Do Human Rights Treaties Make a Difference?’ (2003) 112 Yale Law Journal
This essay considers that the violation of human rights can indeed be address by extraterritorial jurisdiction throw the human rights legal framework, mainly throw treaties as showed jurisprudence.
First of all, we need to know the definition of the subjects of international law. In the perspective of legal theories, to identify the subjects of international law must be based on these following basic signals: The participation in international legal relations that be adjusted by the international law; having the will of independence in international activities; having a full rights and obligations severally toward other objects under the scope to adjust of international law; ability of shoulder the international legal responsibility for the acts executed by object. Generally, objects of international law are the entities that are participating in, or may have the ability to participate in the international legal relations independently. They have the full legal international rights and obligations for the acts executed by object.
One such case is R v Rimmington (2006) where Lord Bingham said that conduct forbidden by law should be clearly indicated so that a person is capable of knowing that it is wrong before he does it and that nobody should be punished for doing something which was not a criminal offence when it was done. Moreover Lord Bingham and Lord Walker in the Privy Council decision in Sharma v Brown-Antoine (2007) said that the rule of law requires that, subject to any legal immunity or exemption, the law should be even-handed and apply to all
...th 2001). Roth argues that the concept of international jurisdiction is not a new idea but was exercised by the US government in the 1970 after an aircraft hijacking. Also the war crime courts established after the end of World War II exercised international jurisdiction. In fact the Geneva Convention states that is a person regardless of their nationality should be brought before the court of any state in which that person has committed grave breaches of law and convention. Roth states that the concept of international jurisdiction is not a new one but that only in recent years have states been willing to act on universal jurisdiction and go after criminals of the international community regardless of their stating or power within the international community. Roth believes in the ability and authority of international organizations and institutions (Roth 2001).
Social and economic rights are protected in several international human rights instruments, the most comprehensive of which is the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR or Covenant). In fact the approach commonly adopted to identify such a right is to assess whether it is included in the ICESCR.
The lack of automatic international compulsory jurisdiction renders ICJ inferior. Therefore the argument that referring to this court as the ‘World Court’ implies it is superior; an international equivalent of a national supreme court is null and void. Generally a supreme court is the highest ranking court. Its ruling is not subject to further review and therefore the disputing parties ha...
Public International law International law contains of rules and principles, which preside over the relations and communication of nations with each other. International Law that is in most other countries referred to as Public International Law concerns itself only with questions of rights among more than a few nations or nations and the citizens or subjects of other nations. In dissimilarity, Private International Law deals with controversies among confidential persons, natural or juridical, arising out of situations having important association to further than one nation. In current years the line up connecting public and private international law have became more and more doubtful. Issues of private international law may also associate issues of public international law and numerous matters of private international law nave considerable meaning for the international group of people of nations. International Law consists of the basic, classic concepts of law in nationwide legal systems, status, property, responsibility, and tort. It also includes substantive law, procedure, process and remedies. International Law is rooted in receipt by the nation states, which comprise the system. Customary law and conventional law are primary sources of international law. Customary international law results when states trail convinced practices usually and time after time out of an intelligence of legal responsibility. Lately the customary law was codified in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Conventional international law derives from international agreements and may obtain any appearance that the constricting parties have the same opinion upon. Agreements may be complete in admiration to any substance except for to the leve...
The judicial statement of Roskill LJ observed in The Albazero [1977] AC774 held plenty of arguments in modern world today. To reach an extent of agree or disagree the judicial statement, it should be critically analysed from a legal perspective: