In 1780, the term “international law” was created and first used by Jeremy Bentham in his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Since about 1840, in the English and Romance Languages it has replaced the older terminology of ‘law of nations’ or ‘droit de gens’ which can be traced back to the Roman concept of ius gentium and the writings of Cicero. Since its inception, there have been different definitions offered to define the term “international law”. For example, Bentham himself defined international law as the law which relates to the mutual transactions between sovereigns as such. Tim Hiller says, it is the “body of rules which are legally binding on states in their intercourse with each other”. In the view of Sir Cecil Hurst, “international law is the aggregate of rules which determines the rights which one state is entitled to claim on behalf of itself or its nationals against another state”.
Despite the different definitions offered above, there is a similarity with all three definitions, which is the relationship between states. As Colin Warbrick asserts, “international law has something to do with States”, however while states were the only legal persons of international law fifty years ago, today international organisations, regional organisations, non-governmental organisations, public companies, private companies and individuals can now be regarded as legal persons under international law.
Furthermore, due to the relationship between states and international law, some states have incorporated some aspects of international law into their domestic laws. For example, states such as the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States America (USA), have adopted the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of...
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...e, Russia, China and the UK to control their borders due to the fact they can withstand any sanctions place upon them if they were to breach international law.
However, to a great extent, international law does inhibit the ability of nation’s states that are not economically and politically sound to control their borders. Firstly, this is due to the fact that “weaker states”( those states not economically and politically strong) have to reduce border strictness in order to facilitate the flow of capital, information, cheap labor and domestic services as asserted by Sassen, Pecoud and Guchteneire. Lastly, weaker states have to abide to international laws, such as allowing freedom of movement and the acceptance of refugees, domestic workers etc, as a breach of it made lead to sanctions (i.e. withdrawal of aid) which could be of detrimental effect to their economy.
There continues to be a growing debate to this day over the use of international law in the Supreme Court, and even though the case of Roper v. Simmons and Justice Kennedy, are nearly a decade old, they are both frequently
A topic crucial to the world today is illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is when people live in a country without permission from the government, nor have any legal documentation. As more and more illegal immigrants enter the United States, it either upsets some people, or others feel like they should just grant them ability to pursue life, liberty, and happiness because that is what the Constitution says. Some people feel that illegal immigrants should be protected by the same rights and laws as American citizens. On the other hand, many people believe that this is a horrible mistake. They feel that the rights of citizenship should be earned and not extended to people who haven broken the law just by being in the United States.
With the formation of formal International Organisations (such as the United Nations), informal Organisations (such as the G20) and other organisations (such as the NGO`s) in the 20th century, global governance has become significantly important for the societies and countries in the world. Nation states have set-up and involved in these organisations in order to cooperate, make and implement international laws and policies and consent in international agreements (Diehl & Frederking 2010 p.30). They have also worked together to cooperate and tackle certain global issues and challenges such as wars, health, human rights and the environment. As a result, with the formation of a number of organisations and other non-state actors, countries have been involved in a global system in which they have become more dependent to each other as well as binding to international laws, norms and policies. In other words, the globalisation process and the presence of the international organisations and civil societies have caused nation states to keep their policy standards in compliance with international laws and agreements (Cable, 1999, p.35). However, despite of the evolving global governance today, nation states level of compliance to the global governance can be argued to be limited since the globalisation process can also be regarded to be as a threat to the nation states, as countries resist in staying as central actors when making policies and taking decisions rather than complying and binding to international norms, laws and agreements (Senarclens & Kazancigil, 2007, p.51).
Over the years it seems as though our country has become more populated and unsafe from the illegal immigrants and smuggled goods, such as drugs and weapons, which make it into the United States. Although there are many illegal immigrants and contraband that are able to make it into the U.S undetected, there are a significant amount of people and contraband that are caught by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The CBP is a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and was formed in 2003. “It is one of the world’s largest law enforcement organizations and is charged with keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the U.S” (CBP). One of the departments of the CBP is border security, which is a team of individuals that work together to protect our country from “illegal immigrants, narcotics smuggling, and illegal importation” (CBP). Border patrol was established in 1924 and has changed dramatically over the decades. The one aspect that has not changed is “the overall mission to detect and prevent the illegal entry of aliens into the U.S” (CBP). The border patrol is responsible for patrolling the 6,000 miles of Mexican and Canadian land borders and 2,000 miles of coastal waters. According to CBP, “In 2013 420,789 nationwide illegal aliens were apprehended and 2.9 million pounds of drugs were seized.” As one could tell, there is a significant amount of illegal immigrants and smuggled goods coming into the U.S. However, the number of illegal immigrants that have been seized is lower than it has been in the past, but I still believe that having a strong border security is necessary in continuing to keep immigrants from trying to come into the U.S illegally and transporting illegal goods. “The primary goal of bo...
The first element of international law is state practice. There are certain behaviors that are regarded as customs once they are practiced by a substantial amount of states over a prolonged period of time. However, it is important to note that this stand...
The beat-up Arab minivan slowed tentatively under the scrutinizing gaze of the Israeli soldier on duty. The routine was simple. About halfway between Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem and Ramallah, the West Bank commercial center, the driver, blaring Arabic music on his radio, maneuvered around the dusty slabs of concrete that composed the Beit Haninah Checkpoint. He waited for a once-over by the Hebrew-speaking 18-year-old and permission to continue. Checkpoints-usually just small tin huts with a prominent white and blue Israeli flag-have become an integral and accepted part of Palestinian existence under Israeli occupation. But for me, a silent passenger in the minivan, each time we entered the no man's land between Israeli territory and the West Bank, my hea...
International law is a body of legally binding rules that are suppose to govern the relations between sovereign states. (Cornell Law School) In order to be a qualified subject, a state has to be sovereign. To be considered sovereign the state needs to have territory, a population, and a government that is recognized or legitimized to most other states. In the more modern explanation of international law now can include the rights and obligation on intergovernmental international organizations and even individuals. Examples of an international organization would be Greenpeace or the United Nations and an example of an individual would be war criminals, a leader of a state that violated human rights during a time of war. When a dispute arise and cannot be solved amongst the two actors involved they can turn to the U.N. to arbitrate and to the International Court of Justice, one of many courts within the U.N. to find a resolution to their problem. The International Court of Justice’s main task is to help settle legal disputes submitted to it by states and...
456). Also, as stated by Besson, a State needs jurisdiction in order to apply human rights treaties, meaning that “it conditions the applicability of those rights and duties on political and legal circumstances where a certain relationship exists between right-holders and state parties” (Besson, p. 860).
In any kind of legal relations, subject always play an important role, and it is one of the signals to determine the relation that pertaining the adjustment of any legislation system. International law is a legislation system that is a set of thousands of documents from various sources. The research about the subjects is necessary since it helps to find out the source of law, which relation pertains the adjustment of law. The subjects of international law include sovereign states and analogous entities, intergovernmental organizations, the individuals, and multinational corporations.
Atzili, Boaz. (2007). When Good Fences Make Bad Neighbors: Fixed Borders, State Weakeness, and International Conflict. International Security. 31 (3), p139-173.
The rule of law requires compliance by the state with its obligations in International law.
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...
The international system is an anarchical system which means that, unlike the states, there is no over ruling, governing body that enforces laws and regulations that all states must abide by. The International System in today’s society has become highly influential from a number of significant factors. Some of these factors that will be discussed are Power held by the state, major Wars that have been fought out in recent history and international organisations such as the U.N, NATO and the W.T.O. Each of these factors, have a great influence over the international system and as a result, the states abilities to “freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social, and cultural development”.
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...
...onal human rights law and international humanitarian law, as well as the development within international criminal law needed to enforce IHRL and IHL and the international criminal law itself, and criminal law traditionally imposes obligation on individuals, and duties on states to sanction violations committed by individuals.