Public International laws

Private International laws refers to the choice of law to apply where there are conflicts or disagreements in domestic law of different countries to private transactions. This dispute can be in reference to a dispute in the choice of law to apply, what jurisdiction applies, or the recognition of enforcement of a foreign judgment. Some areas of private international law involve trade, judicial assistance, matters involving families and children, finance and banking, arbitration and judgments, and wills trusts and estates. Another widely used term for private international laws is “Conflict of Laws.” What they basically are is a set of rules of strategically law which determine which legal system and the law of which jurisdiction applies to a given legal dispute. Both names are still used today, and even the name international private law, they refer to the same instance. Regardless of what you choose to call private international laws, there are steps into which they take effect.

The first step of private international law is for the court to decide whether or not it has jurisdiction over the conflict, and whether it is the proper venue. After this comes the characterization of the cause of action into a legal category which could include an incidental question. After these two decisions are made, it must be looked upon to determine which set of competing laws would be applied to the legal category. After the law that is applicable to the situation has been decided, the law must be proven before the forum court and applied in accordance to reach a judgment. Once all this is done, the party that has succeeded must enforce the judgment., after cross-border recognition of it. The organizations assigned to oversee and protect private international laws meet on a regular basis to discuss and address any issues.

In November of 2009, the Hague Conference on Private International Law held a Special Commission to go over the fulfillment of the 2007 Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance. During this meeting, 12 forms were adopted that would be used by parties to the treaty for creating and addressing child support related requests and a country profile form that will describe how each country will perform its treaty obligations. Soon after that, the Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Private International Law (L/PIL) of the U.S. Department of State, met twice in the month of December of 2009 under the backing of the Department of State’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law. The first meeting concentrated on the utilization of the UNCITRAL Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly By Sea. The second meeting primarily concentrated considering various proposals in the OAS in reference to consumer protection. This recent action in the field of private international laws shows that governing bodies and divisions are in constant pursue of improvement and there to address any current issues and regards.

Public International laws

Public International laws center mainly on the avocation of human rights and protection of the environment. However, they will also include other topics as well. Public international law deals with the structure and conduct of sovereign state, intergovernmental organizations, and analogous entities. In relation to the increase of armed conflict, environmental deterioration, global trade, awareness of human rights violations, a boom in global communications, and fast and large growth in international transportation, public international law has escalated greatly in importance. Aside from its focus on human rights, public international law has been known to focus as well on issues with due process protections, asylum law, nationality and citizenship, and rights of the child. Although its concentration is set on the environment and human rights, it can include these other areas.

Public international law can be divided into two central branches: international agreements and conventions, and the law of nations. The term public international law, itself, was first conceived by Jeremy Bentham, a prominent English philosopher. The four main sources of public international law are: customs, international treaties, teachings, and general principles of law and judicial decisions. The groundwork and foundation for identifying states as principal actors in the international legal system has been instituted by public international law. The main people involved in an issue dealing with public international law would be the head of a nation or organization, the sovereign power. In some cases it would be the Prime Minister, or President of a given country. Later on, most cases involved the department in charge of representing that sovereign power such as the Foreign Ministry, or State Department (U.S.), etc… Even though these departments of government will be the main or lead role in establishing the international law, the leader of that nation may still be needed to approve and endorse such a law. When considering a universal scale, the two most important congregations for creating public international law are the United Nations and the still young but effective European Union. Some branches of international law that public international law deals with would be international trade law, diplomatic law, consular law, and international environmental law. Dilemmas that deal with public international law have an inclination to be more tough to foresee, and more illusive and complicated to decipher, than cases that deal with private international law.

Having taken a look at public international law, its meaning, its reach, and its effect, we can gain a general idea of how it works and its importance to international law. It is in essence a categorization for a group of international laws that fall under it, pertaining to the sovereign power or department creating them, and who they entail to. In conclusion, it is safe to understand that public international law is the law of a political system of nation-states that bestows laws upon national systems it touches, which are not adequately governed.

Breaking the Law

Breaking the law is bad enough when done by a person or group in general, but imagine the consequences when done on a much larger scale. International criminal law is a self-governing branch of law that applies to international crimes and the tribunals and courts created to bring justice where certain individuals have taken part in criminal activity on an international level. Some may wonder, “What constitutes breaking an international criminal law?” First, international criminal laws can be classified in two ways, by whether the “alleged crime” has been committed against an entire world community (international), or rather affecting the interests of more than one state (transnational). Some examples of an international crime would be genocide, war crimes, such that would threaten security and world order. Transnational crimes would be terrorism, drug trafficking, any type of trans border criminal activity. The biggest advocate in combating international crime has been the United Nations. They oversee and persecute those responsible for committing crimes of slavery, war crimes and crimes against humanity, terrorism, torture, apartheid, narcotic drugs, the taking of hostages, aircraft hijacking, and genocide. Some of these terms may seem broad in categorization, so let’s look into “war crimes” to gain a better understanding of what constitutes as one. As per the Geneva Conventions, war crimes are: “grave breaches” along with other serious violations of international humanitarian norms applicable in international and non-international armed conflict .

International criminal law imposes much more substantial penalties for those individuals or groups that work to act against it. In order to impose justice upon those who break these international criminal laws, a specialty court is necessary.

This is where the International Criminal Court (ICC) comes in. The ICC was born in 2002 after the Statute of the International Criminal Court , its founding treaty, came into force. The ICC is a permanent council that prosecutes individuals for crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, and crime of aggression that was committed on or after the date it was created. Although the official seat of the ICC is in the Netherlands, its proceedings can take place anywhere. Some examples of notorious cases that have been or are being investigated by the ICC in regards to breaking international criminal law are the situations in Uganda, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and the Central African Republic. In these cases, warrants were filed for arrests of those investigated. Some arrests have been made, other fugitives remain at large, while the rest have died or are believed to have died. While not every case has been open, these are very positive steps that were taken to force out those who’ve broken international criminal laws and hold them responsible for their actions. The system has come a long way in which to deal with these individuals and groups to better the world’s society. By enforcing international criminal law, it is less likely crimes will be committed against states and communities in the world, therefore making the world a better place to live.

International law

International law is a set of laws and regulations that are set for nations to be able to broadcast order to their citizens and citizens of other nations. In turn, the international laws will apply to helping nations themselves communicate their efforts with other nations as a whole. Some international laws differ drastically from other nations’ laws, therefore must be taken seriously by outside visitors to a nation prior to entering. For example, there are laws in certain nations of the Middle East and Europe that prevent citizens from performing certain activities in public, that are quite normal in the United States. The lack of knowledge in international laws can result in someone ending up in jail for acting on something they believed to be perfectly normal. However, let’s look at the bigger picture here, the way to maintain peace throughout with a general agreement on international laws. It seems almost impossible to have a group of nations accept certain international laws and abide by them as w hole without disapproval, or protest. This is why the United Nations was created. The United Nations (UN) was created in a 1945 post war era, to bring together the world as a whole and bring peace. By joining nations together and establishing a basis of international law, countries would interact with each other easier, and more peacefully. Together, nations would be able to address international problems together and solve them in an improved manner. The UN helps to bring the views and beliefs of nations into one mutual understanding, when each international law is created, passed, and enforced. An agreement made by nations under international law is known as a treaty. Treaties are brought forth by nations coming together to create a pact, or contract, setting a specific regulation or rule to govern or control the conduct of nations within that set agreement. If the rules are broken, or the agreement itself is broken, the nation can be held responsible under international law to face the circumstances following. In order to keep the system working properly and organized, a set standard was created for all treaties. The Vienna Convention On the Law of Treaties , after 20 years in the making, was put into effect in 1980 to do just that.

International laws primarily pertained to nations or states when first created and enforced, although that has evolved with time. These laws no longer affect the nations as they customarily once did., but also individuals. Progressively, there have been more and more cases in which individuals and certain international organizations have been addressed as the subject of international law. Aside from the basic concepts that are included in national law, such as property and status, international law also includes substantive law, process, remedies, and procedure. The most considerable fields of international law are diplomatic law, international human rights law, international environmental law, international humanitarian law, international security law, international economic law, and international criminal law. Each one of these fields has its own set of regulations within them so they specifically address the “branch” of international law they are applied to.