International Law What is International Law International Law Set of rules that bind international actors and most importantly states Most law binds states Body of rules that binds world actors These rules exist but they often conflict with sovereignty Primary vs Secondary rules Primary law is the law agreements that countries make Secondary law is the law that countries make to create law Anything that the states create is primary law All maintain the same legal status Positive negative rules International Treaties Negative rules Telling someone you can t do something Positive rules Telling someone that you must do something ie taxes States are only bound to the things that they agree to be bound to o If a state does not sign a treaty they aren t bound Gives no obligations to the citizens unless it is translated into domestic law enabling resolutions International laws have an indirect effect Diplomatic community o In the conduct of one s official business if you commit crimes you are immune from your prosecution Development of international law o A country can only be found in violation of international law if they want to be 1 Crimes against humanity Those countries that implement heinous crimes over a people ie Nazi Germany and the Holocaust become war criminals 2 Nuremberg Tribunals A series of trials in Germany for the Nazi s crimes against humanity Many were held responsible and therefore executed or otherwise put in jail for 10 years 3 United Nations 4 EU of IR IAC of HR Created for the rights of citizens 5 Euro court of Justice 6 International Criminal Court Claims that people can be arrested and tried Variation in International Law 1 Obligation How strong is the obligation of the states to comply with the texts of the treaty You can have high obligation laws that lack precision 2 Precision How precise are the rules and how much detail is there Too vague is not considered specific You can have high precision laws that lack obligation 3 Delegation Hard law vs soft law Who enforces the law the power behind it Hard law has more force WTO High obligation high precision medium delegation and therefore hard NAFTA High obligation high precision but no delegation There s no separate body handling the law Why does hard soft law matter is better enforced law harder When it is known that the harder the law the larger the consequence it Most law starts of fairly soft in most countries and then becomes increasingly Effects of international law Clarifies expectation Coordination Dispute settlement Change behavior with the laws Pattern of compliance If countries want to work together international law helps them communicate what you want need a sense of regularity Having a neutral arbiter resolve their dispute can help them out We don t know the real rules and so countries may or may not follow tgrough Most countries do comply Suggests that countries are going to do what they say they re going to do Compliance may not be there but that doesn t change the law Selection problem Much less breaking of international law then domestic law Because countries are choosing what they want to follow high levels of compliance to do not necessarily mean high levels of cooperation Enforcement Mechanisms Because there is no such enforcement at the international level it is argued that there is no point to international law without reasonable enforcement law is meaningless At the domestic level one example is cameras busy intersections to reduce speeding by threatening tickets Enforcement has to be done by the players actors themselves Countries often follow laws simply because they want to be good countries
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