International Law

National Institute of Business Management

Chennai - 020

SECOND SEMESTER EMBA/MBA

Subject: International Law

ANSWERS

1. Explain the origin & nature of International Law  its legal powers .

Nature:

The system of public international law may be described as ‘consisting of a body of laws, rules and legal principles that are based on custom, treaties or legislation and define, control, constrain or affect the rights and duties of states in their relations with each other’. Public international law has increased in use and importance vastly over the twentieth century, due to the increase in global trade, armed conflict, environmental deterioration on a worldwide scale, awareness of human rights violations, rapid and vast increases in international transportation and a boom in global communications.

Public international law has three principal sources: international treaties, custom, and general principles of law. In addition, judicial decisions and teachings may be applied as "subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law". International treaty law comprises obligations, states expressly and voluntarily accept between themselves in treaties. Attempts to codify customary international law picked up momentum after the Second World War with the formation of the International Law Commission (ILC), under the aegis of the United Nations. Codified customary law is made the binding interpretation of the underlying custom by agreement through treaty. For states not party to such treaties, the work of the ILC may still be accepted as custom applying to those states.

Public international law establishes the framework and the criteria for identifying states as the principal actors in the international legal system. International law is concerned with the treatment of individuals within state boundaries. There is thus a comprehensive regime dealing with group rights, the treatment of aliens, the...