Chapter 1 - What is International Law

Question 1

What is International Law

Answer 1

• International law is a set of rules made by States in order to regulate the legal relations between them;
• It constraints the exercise of both external sovereignty and internal sovereignty of States;

Question 2

Why do States undertake international obligations?

Answer 2

• States produce international rules providing for self-constraints in exchange for a corresponding advantage;
• Key role of reciprocity (quid pro quo) in the development of international law;
• For example, rules on the treatment of aliens: State A will treat the citizens of State B in a certain way, assuming that State B will treat citizen of State A in the same way.

Question 3

Why do States breach international law?

Answer 3

States sometimes infringe obligations stemming from rules of their own making, or reject the same rule altogether;

Problem of coordination within the State : those who negotiate international rules are different from those who apply it.

Question 4

What are 3 key features in international law?

Answer 4

• Lack of a centralised Legislator (UN General Assembly is not a Parliament!)
• Lack of compulsory jurisdictional of Courts (jurisdiction is based on consent!)
• Lack of a centralised and mandatory enforcement mechanism (there is no international “army”!)

Question 5

Why should national lawyers have a knowledge of international law?

Answer 5

• National law is inseparable of international law. In many cases, for example, human rights international law guides national law.
• National Judiciaries play a role in the application and changing of international law

Question 6

Is there a relation between international law and politics?

Answer 6

“the assessment of so called extralegal considerations is part of the legal process, just as is reference to the accumulation of past decisions and current norms. “

International law and international politics cohabit the same conceptual space. Together they comprise the rules and the reality of the ‘international system’, an intellectual construct that lawyers, political scientists, and policymakers use to describe the world they study and seek to manipulate

Question 7

What is the Peace of Westphalia?

Answer 7

The Peace of Westphalia is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years’ War and brought peace to the Holy Roman Empire, closing a calamitous period of European history that killed approximately eight million people.

Question 8

Can we Speake of an International Constitution?

Answer 8

• The UN Charter can rightly be said to have been an important component of the constitutional principles of contemporary international law.
• Yet the key constitutional principles of the international society date back to way before the UN Charter.
• Principle of Sovereign Equality of States as the Foundational Principle of the Community

Question 9

What are the conditions for statehood?

Answer 9

• conditions = independant and stable government + territory with settled borders within which the government exercises its jurisdiction + permanent population settled in that territory and ruled by the government in question
• issue of recognition (+ admission to UN)