Summary International law Distinction Level Questions and Answer 2023

Introduction - --- -Definition of International Law - -That system of law governing the international legal relations between states, international organisations, including individual responsibility for natural persons for breach of international law -Characteristics of International Law as compared to National Law - -- Structured horizontally, 196 states all equal actors, decentralized - National law structured vertical and hierarchical in nature, centralized institutions -What features characteristic of national law does international law lack? - -1. No international legislature, the UN is merely a forum whereby non-binding resolutions are adopted 2. No courts of compulsory jurisdiction binding on states, ICJ only has compulsory jurisdiction if accepted by both parties 3. No central set of sanctions to enforce the law, Security Council has limited powers to impose economic and military sanctions, but no general authority to police -Is international law, law? - -- John Austin, writing in 1832 would say no, proper law is the command of the sovereign backed by sanctions (command theory): international law in his view is not law as it fails to meet the definition, he instead argues it is merely 'positive morality' - HLA Hart in 1961 argued differently, equating international law with the legal system of more primitive societies, who had primary rules, but had yet to develop secondary rules. International law merely lacked the enforcement mechanisms of more developed areas of law through: