Principles of Public International Law
Principles of Public International Law: Coursework Assignment
Question: “Law will never really play an effective part in international relations until it can annex to its own sphere some of the matters which at present lie within the domestic jurisdiction of the several states.” Discuss
‘The principles and regulations established in a community by some authority and applicable to its people, whether in the form of legislation or of custom and policies recognised’.
The aforementioned is a definition of law as defined by the American Heritage dictionary of the English Language.
If we apply this definition of community in its strictest sense it becomes increasingly difficult to subscribe to the view that there is an international community at large. If we begin to analyse statistics that show that there are over 7000 languages in the world, approximately 10,000 distinctly different religions, and a disputably infinite number of ethnic groups across just the 195 countries that comprise our global society, then it becomes patently clear that we would be better off highlighting our divisiveness rather than our prospects as a global community.
Our collective history as human beings, however, tells a different story about our common interest and the way in which we have formally raised and torn down barriers to promote the same. We have, on the other hand, been separated on the basis of differing ideologies and the exercise of exclusive nationalism. Since the latter is a sentiment which resides in particular nations which have at their core a set legal framework validating their very existence and their interaction with other nations, it is essential to any study of law’s application to international relations. How does a sovereign nation reconcile its very sovereignty with its growing need to be integrated into a shrinking global society with its concomitant shrinking
Question: “Law will never really play an effective part in international relations until it can annex to its own sphere some of the matters which at present lie within the domestic jurisdiction of the several states.” Discuss
‘The principles and regulations established in a community by some authority and applicable to its people, whether in the form of legislation or of custom and policies recognised’.
The aforementioned is a definition of law as defined by the American Heritage dictionary of the English Language.
If we apply this definition of community in its strictest sense it becomes increasingly difficult to subscribe to the view that there is an international community at large. If we begin to analyse statistics that show that there are over 7000 languages in the world, approximately 10,000 distinctly different religions, and a disputably infinite number of ethnic groups across just the 195 countries that comprise our global society, then it becomes patently clear that we would be better off highlighting our divisiveness rather than our prospects as a global community.
Our collective history as human beings, however, tells a different story about our common interest and the way in which we have formally raised and torn down barriers to promote the same. We have, on the other hand, been separated on the basis of differing ideologies and the exercise of exclusive nationalism. Since the latter is a sentiment which resides in particular nations which have at their core a set legal framework validating their very existence and their interaction with other nations, it is essential to any study of law’s application to international relations. How does a sovereign nation reconcile its very sovereignty with its growing need to be integrated into a shrinking global society with its concomitant shrinking
Bibliography: Brownlie, Ian , Principles of Public International Law, Fifth Edition, New York: Oxford University Press 1998 Hashmi, Sohail.H, State Sovereignty- Change and Persistence in Industrial Relations, Pensylvania: Pensylvania State University Press 1997 Krasner, Stephen, D, Sovereignty- Organized Hypocrisy, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1999 Moore, Margaret, National Self-Determination and Secession, New York: Oxford University Press 1998 Harris , D.J, Cases and Materials on International Law , Sixth Edition, London: Sweet and Maxwell 2004 Buergenthalm, Thomas and Murphy, Sean D, Public International Law in a Nut Shell, : Thompson/West 2002