International law
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
International law can refer to three things. These are,
- public international law
- private international law or conflict of laws
- the law of supranational organizations.
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[edit] Public international law
Public international law (or international public law) concerns the relationships between sovereign nations. It is developed mainly through multilateral conventions, though custom (state practice with opinio juris) can play an important role. Its modern corpus started to be developed in the middle of the 19th Century. The two World Wars, the League of Nations and other international organizations such as the International Labour Organisation all contributed to accelerate this process and established much of the foundations of modern public international law. After the failure of the Versailles Treaty and World War II, the League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations, founded under the UN Charter. The UN has developed new standards, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Other international norms and laws have been established through international agreements; e.g. the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war or armed conflict, as well as by other international organizations such as the ILO, the World Health Organisation, the World Intellectual Property Organisation, the International Telecommunication Union, UNESCO, the World Trade Organisation, and the International Monetary Fund. Thus later law is of great importance in the realm of international relations.
[edit] Conflict of laws
Conflict of laws, or "private international law" in civil law jurisdictions, is less international than international law. It is distinguished from public international law because it governs conflicts between private persons, rather than states (or other international bodies with standing). It concerns which jurisdiction a legal dispute between private parties should be heard in, therefore raising issues of international law. Today corporations are increasingly capable of shifting capital and labour supply chains across borders, as well as trading with overseas corporations. This increases the number of disputes of an inter-state nature outside a unified legal framework and raises issues of the enforceability of standard practices. Increasing numbers of businesses use commercial arbitration under the New York Convention 1958.
[edit] Supranational law
[edit] The European Union
The European Union is the first and only example (so far) of a supra-national legal framework, where sovereign nations have pooled their authority through a system of courts and political institutions. It constitutes a new legal order in international law[1] [1] for the mutual social and economic benefit of the member states.
[edit] East Africa Community
At present the East African Community can no longer be ignored as the developments at their Headquarters in Arusha in Tanzania and the three founder states, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have so far signed a treaty to refound the Community. The process of admission to the East African Community has ended, and two new member states, Burundi and Rwanda, will join July 2007. This project's aim is the welfare of the peoples of East Africa, and to benefit this by pooling their efforts in order to facilitate their presence in the competitive world market.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ C-26/62 Van Gend en Loos v. Nederlanse Administratie Der Belastingen
