International Law Essay Research Paper International law

International Law Essay, Research Paper

International law is the body of legal rules that apply between sovereign

states and such other entities as have been granted international

personality (status acknowledged by the international community). The

rules of international law are of a normative character, that is, they

prescribe towards conduct, and are potentially designed for authoritative

interpretation by an international judicial authority and by being capable

of enforcement by the application of external sanctions. The International

Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations,

which succeeded the Permanent Court of International Justice after World

War II. Article 92 of the charter of the United Nations states:

The International Court of justice shall be the principal judicial

organ of the United nations. It shall function in accordance with

the annexed Statute, which is based upon the Statute of the Permanent

court of International Justice and forms an integral part of the present

Charter.

The commands of international law must be those that the states

impose upon themselves, as states must give consent to the commands that

they will follow. It is a direct expression of raison d’etat, the

"interests of the state", and aims to serve the state, as well as protect

the state by giving its rights and duties. This is done through treaties

and other consensual engagements which are legally binding.

The case-law of the ICJ is an important aspect of the UN’s

contribution to the development of international law. It’s judgements and

advisory opinions permeates into the international legal community not only

through its decisions as such but through the wider implications of its

methodology and reasoning.

The successful resolution of the border dispute between Burkina

Faso and Mali in the 1986 Frontier Dispute case illustrates the utility of

judicial decision as a means of settlement in territorial disputes. The

case was submitted to a Chamber of the ICJ pursuant to a special agreement

concluded by the parties in 1983. In December 1985, while written

submissions were being prepared, hostilities broke out in the disputed

area. A cease-fire was agreed, and the Chamber directed the continued

observance of the cease-fire, the withdrawal of troops within twenty days,

and the avoidance of actions tending to aggravate the dispute or prejudice

its eventual resolution. Both Presidents publicly welcomed the judgement

and indicated their intention to comply with it.

In the Fisheries Jurisdiction case (United Kingdom v. Iceland ,

1974) the ICJ contributed to the firm establishment in law of the idea that

mankind needs to conserve the living resources of the sea and must respect

these resources. The Court observed:

It is one of the advances in maritime international law, resulting

from the intensification of fishing, that the former laissez-faire

treatment ofthe living resources of the sea in the high seas has been

replaced by a recognition of a duty to have due regard of the rights of

other States and the needs of conservation for the benefit of all.

Consequently, both parties have the obligation to keep inder review the

fishery resources in the disputed waters and to examine together, in the

light of scientific and other available information, the measures

required for the conservation and development, and equitable exploitation,

of these resources, taking into account any international agreement in

force between them, such as the North-East Atlantic Fisheries

Convention of 24 January 1959, as well as such other agreements as

may be reached in the matter in the course of further negotiation.

The Court also held that the concept of preferential rights in

fisheries is not static.

This is not to say that the preferential rights of a coastal State

in a special situation are a static concept, in the sense that the

degree of the coastal State’s preference is to be considered as for

ever at some given moment. On the contrary, the preferential rights are

a function of the exceptional dependence of such a coastal State on the

fisheries in adjacent waters and may, therefore, vary as the extent of

that dependence changes.

The Court’s judgement on this case contributes to the development of the

law of the sea by recognizing the concept of the preferential rights of a

coastal state in the fisheries of the adjacent waters, particularly if that

state is in a special situation with its population dependent on those

fisheries. Moreover, the Court proceeds further to recognise that the law

pertaining to fisheries must accept the primacy of the requirement of

conservation based on scientific data. The exercise of preferential rights

of the coastal state, as well as the hisoric rights of other sta

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