International law, also called the law of nations, is a
body of rules that governs conduct among nations. It is comprised of a complicated web
of treaties (agreements between two or among several nations), laws based on customs,
legal writings, and conventions (international agreements). In 1625 Dutch legal scholar
Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) published Concerning the Law of War and
Peace, which served as a basis of international law. In this work he asserted
that every state in the world is sovereign (independent) and legally equally to all
other states. He also argued that natural law (a body of law that is derived from nature
and is therefore binding upon human society) defines rules of conduct for nations as
well as individuals; therefore nations are accountable to common principles, which are
higher than the laws of a nation.
At the time everyone did
not agree with Grotius's idea. For instance, English philosopher Thomas Hobbes
(1588–1679) discarded the notion of natural law as being superior to the laws of a
nations. International law is unenforceable, he said, because there is no legal body
higher than that of a nation. Since the seventeenth century, however, the concept of
international law has gained acceptance. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
the Geneva Conventions (1864) and The Hague (Netherlands) Conferences (1889, 1907, 1914)
laid down rules for war, although these rules were often disregarded. The International
Court of Justice, which is part of the United Nations (an international peace-keeping
organization), now enforces international
laws.
Further Information:
Reed, Paul S. "International Law." Current Events: Law. [Online]
Available
target="_blank">http://law.about.com/newsissues/law/cs/internationallaw/index.htm?terms=international+law,
October 30, 2000; Spies, Karen B. Isolation vs. Intervention. New
York: Twenty-First Century Books, 1995; United Nations. International
Law. [Online] Available target="_blank">http://www.un.org/law/, October 30,
2000.
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