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In the following chapters much will be said about the substance of internationallaw,
the method of its creation and the legal persons or subjects who may be gov-erned
by it. The purpose of this rst chapter is, however, to examine the very natureand
quality of this subject called international law. Historically, international lawhas
been derided or disregarded by many of the worlds foremost jurists and
legalcommentators. They have questioned, rst, the existence of
any
set of rules govern-ing inter-state relations; second, its entitlement to be called
law; and, third, itseffectiveness in controlling states and other international actors
in real life situ-ations. In the early years of the twenty-rst century, this theoretical
rejection of theprescriptive quality of international law seemed to be borne out in
practice as anumber of states, groups and individuals became engaged in
internationallyunlawful action without even the remote possibility that their
conduct could bechecked by the international legal system. Whatever the legal
merits of the US-ledinvasion of Iraq or the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, or the
detention of terroristsuspects without trial, or the unhindered resort to terrorism by
groups based inexisting states (with or without the support of another states
government), or therejection by some of international minimum standards for the
protection of theenvironment, the
perception
has been that international law is failing in one of itsprimary purposes the
maintenance of an ordered community where the weak areprotected from arbitrary
action by the strong. Some commentators have even sug-gested that we are
witnessing the demise of this subject as a
legal discipline
andshould now recognise it as having political and moral force, but not
necessarilylegal content.There is, of course, some truth in these criticisms, but let
us not pretend that weare arguing that international law is a perfect legal system. It
is not, but neither isthe national legal system of any state. Historically, there have
been successes andfailures for the international legal system. The invasion of
Kuwait by Iraq in 1990may have produced a signicant response from the
international community, bothlegally and militarily, but the United Nations failed in
Bosnia, Somalia and Sudanand was impotent as Israel invaded Lebanon in July
2006. Likewise, the denial of procedural and substantive rights to those being held
in detention by the USA atGuantanamo Bay may well constitute a violation of the
international law of humanrights worthy of much criticism, but it pales beside the
activities of Pol Pot inCambodia in the late 1970s or the Rwandan genocide of the
1990s. On the otherhand, these episodes can be contrasted with the successful UN-

led efforts to bringself-determination and then independence to East Timor in 2002,

the groundbreak-ing establishment and operation of the International Criminal Court
responsible for
1
The nature of international law and theinternational system

prosecuting individuals for violation of fundamental international human rightsand

the continuing impact of the International Court of Justice in regulating statesuse of
the worlds oceans and their natural resources. In other words, the story
of international law and the international legal system, like so many other legal systems, is one with successes and failures. So, in much the same way that we
wouldnot suggest that the law of the UK is somehow not law because it is currently
prov-ing impossible to control internet crime, it does not necessarily follow that
inter-national law should be dismissed as a system of law because there are
internationalactors that seem determined to ignore it.The way in which the
international system deals with these practical issuesandthe many others that occur
on a daily basis whenever the members of theinternational community interact,
goes to the heart of the debate about whetherinternational law exists as a
system of law
. However, to some extent, this debateabout the nature of international law is
unproductive and even irrelevant. Themost obvious and most frequently used test
for judging the existence or successof international law is to compare it with
national legal systems such as that oper-ating in the UK or Japan or anywhere at all.
National law and its institutions courts, legislative assemblies and enforcement
agencies are held up as thedenitive model of what the law and a legal system
should be like. Then,because international law sometimes falls short of these
standards, it is arguedthat it cannot be regarded as true law. Yet, it is not at all
clear why
any
form of national law should be regarded as the appropriate standard for judging
inter-national law, especially since the rationale of the former is fundamentally
differentfrom that of the latter. National law is concerned primarily with the legal
rightsand duties of legal persons (individuals) within a body politic the state or
similarentity. This law commonly is derived from a legal superior, recognised as
compe-tent by the society to whom the law is addressed (e.g. in a constitution), and
hav-ing both the authority and practical competence to make and enforce that
law.International law, at least as originally conceived, is different. It is concerned
withthe rights and duties of the states themselves. In their relations with each other
itis neither likely nor desirable that a relationship of
legal
superiority exists. Statesare legal equals and the legal system which regulates their
actions
inter se
mustreect this. Such a legal system must
facilitate

the interaction of these legal equalsrather than control or compel them in imitation
of the control and compulsionthat national law exerts over its subjects. Of course,
as international law developsand matures it may come to encompass the legal
relations of non-state entities,such as peoples, territories, individuals or multinational companies, and it mustthen develop institutions and procedures which
imitate in part the functions of the institutions of national legal systems. Indeed, the
re-casting of internationallaw as a system based less on state sovereignty and more
on individual liberty is anaim of many contemporary international lawyers and there
is no doubt that verygreat strides have been made in this direction in recent years.
The establishment of the International Criminal Court is perhaps the most powerful
evidence of thistrend. However, whatever we might hope for in the future for
international law(see section 1.7 below), it is crucial to remember that at the very
heart of the sys-tem lies a set of rules designed to regulate states conduct with
each other, and it isthis central fact that makes precise analogies with national law
at present misleadingand inappropriate.
The nature of international law and the international system
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1.1
The role of international law
In simple terms, international law comprises a system of rules and principles
thatgovern the international relations between sovereign states and other
institutionalsubjects of international law such as the United Nations and the African
Union(formerly the OAU). As we shall see, that is not to say that international law
isunconcerned with the rights or obligations of the individual. Rather, it is that
therules of international law are created primarily by states, either for their own purposes or as a means of facilitating the functions of organisations of which they
aremembers. Rules of international law cover almost every facet of inter-state
activity.There are laws regulating the use of the sea, outer space and Antarctica.
There arerules governing international telecommunications, postal services, the
carriage of goods and passengers by air and the transfer of money. International law
is a pri-mary tool for the conduct of international trade. It is concerned with
nationality,extradition, the use of armed force, human rights, protection of the
environmentand the security of nations. In short, there is very little that is done in
the inter-national arena that is not regulated by international law and it can now
governsome aspects of relations between distinct units
within
a sovereign state, such asthe territories of federal Canada or the devolved regions
of the UK. Internationallaw is the vital mechanism without which an increasingly
interdependent worldcould not function. In this sense, international law facilitates
the functioning of the international community. However, that is not all. Modern
international lawalso seeks to control states by inhibiting or directing their conduct
both in theirrelations with other states (e.g.the law prohibiting the use of armed
force to settledisputes) and in relation to individuals, both individuals of other states
(e.g. issuesconcerning the exercise of criminal jurisdiction) and its own nationals
(e.g. thelawof human rights). It is the evolution of international law from a system

thatwas concerned primarily with facilitating international co-operation among

itssubjects (states), to a system that is now much more engaged in the control of
itssubjects that is the pre-eminent feature of the history of international law in
thelast sixty years.It is also important to realise that the practice of international
law is intrinsicallybound up with diplomacy, politics and the conduct of foreign
relations. It is afallacy to regard international law as the only facilitator or controller
of stateconduct. It cannot be this and, more signicantly, it is not designed to do
it.International law does not operate in a sterile environment and international
legalrules may be just one of the factors which a state or government will
considerbefore deciding whether to embark on a particular course of action. In fact,
inmany cases, legal considerations will prevail, but it is perfectly possible that a
statemay decide to forfeit legality in favour of self-interest, expediency or
humanity,as with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the US-led invasion of
Iraq somethirteen years later. There is nothing surprising in this and it is a feature of
thebehaviour of every legal person in every legal system, including that of the UK.
If it were not so, there would be, for example, no theft and no murder. Indeed,
ininternational society, where politics are so much a part of law, it may be
thatcontextual and exible rules, so evident in international law, are a strength
ratherthan a weakness.
1.2
The existence of international rules as a system of law
The most cogent argument for the existence of international law as a
system of law
is that members of the international community recognise that there exists a bodyof
rules binding upon them as law. States believe international law exists. WhenIraq
invaded Kuwait in 1990, or earlier when Tanzania invaded Uganda in 1978/79,the
great majority of states regarded the action as unlawful, not merely immoralor
unacceptable. The same is true of the war crimes committed in Bosnia
andRwanda, and this is given concrete form when the United Nations Security
Councilimposes sanctions on a delinquent state, as with the embargoes on Libya
(nowlifted) following the Lockerbie bombing. The criticism of the US-led invasion
of Iraq in March 2003 and of Israels forceful intervention in Lebanon in July
2006followed a similar pattern, both being cast by a majority of the
internationalcommunity as a violation of law, not merely as unethical, immoral or
undesirable.Similarly, those arguing in support of these uses of force do not dismiss
inter-national law as irrelevant or voluntary, but seek instead to justify the invasions
aslawful under the legal rules concerning collective security and self-defence. In
otherwords, even the international actors who engage in potentially unlawful
activity donot deny the relevance of international law or its prescriptive quality. This
accept-ance of the reality of international law by the very persons to whom it is
addressedexposes the weakness of those who argue that international law does not
exist. Of course, this does not answer questions about its effectiveness, nor does it
settlewhether it is law in the same sense as that of the UK or of other states. Yet, it
doesreect accurately the reality of international relations. How then do we know
thatstates believe that there is a set of rules binding on them as law? What
evidence isthere of this law habit?
(a)

International law is practised on a daily basis in the Foreign Ofces, nationalcourts

and other governmental organs of states, as well as in international organ-isations
such as the United Nations and the Organisation of American States.Foreign Ofces
have legal departments whose task is to advise on questions of inter-national law
and to assist in the drafting of international agreements and the like.National courts
are frequently concerned with substantive questions of inter-national law, as with
the series of
Pinochet
cases in the UK concerning questions of immunity and human rights (
[2006] 2 WLR 772 concerning the meaning of the international crime of aggression
and its impact on domestic law. In reading the judgment of LordBingham in that
case, no-one could doubt the legal validity of the system of inter-national law.
Similarly, international organisations, in all their forms, use lawyers,employing the
language of the law, to conduct their everyday business. Theseorganisations and
their state-members accept that they are legally bound tobehave in a certain way
and will pursue claims against each other alleging a breachof international law.
(b)
It is a fact of the utmost signicance that states still the most important of the
subjects of international law do not claim that they are above the law or
thatinternational law does not bind them. When Iraq invaded Kuwait it did not claim
The nature of international law and the international system
4

that the law prohibiting armed force did not apply to it or was irrelevant. Rather,Iraq
argued that international law justied its action; in other words, that it waslegal
by reference to some other rule of international law. Likewise, in the

CaseConcerning the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and

Punishment of theCrime of Genocide(Bosnia and Herzegovina
v
Serbia & Montenegro)
ICJ 2007, Serbia didnot deny the existence of rules of law concerning genocide, but
contended ratherthat it was not internationally responsible for the violations of
international lawthat had taken place. In fact there is no modern day example of a
state claiming thatit is not bound by general rules of international law, although
there is often a greatdeal of debate as to the precise obligations imposed by that
law (as in the
BosniaSerbia Genocide Case
where there was argument over the precise obligations imposedby the Genocide
Convention). This is powerful evidence that states follow rules of international law
as a matter of obligation, not simply as a matter of choice ormorality. If this were
not so, there would be no need for states to justify their actionin legal terms when
they departed from a legal norm.
(c)
The most convincing evidence of the existence of international law is that
theoverwhelming majority of international legal rules are consistently obeyed.
Of course, there will be occasions when the law is ignored or outed, just as there
willbe murder and theft in national law. Indeed, the
apparent
ineffectiveness of inter-national law stems from the fact that it is the occasions of
law-breaking that receivethe most publicity. Some of the modern day and notorious
failures of internationallaw, such as the US invasion of Grenada in 1983, the
genocide of the Kurds at thehands of the Iraqis and the invasions of Afghanistan,
Iraq and Lebanon in pursuitof the war on terrorism are not representative of the
whole. Outside of the excep-tional cases, the everyday operation of international
law goes on in a smooth anduninterrupted fashion. The occasions when a state
disregards its treaty or custom-ary law obligations are but a small fraction of the
occasions on which those obliga-tions are observed. The same is true of the law of
diplomatic immunities, stateresponsibility and the law of the sea. In short, the vast
majority of the rules of inter-national law are obeyed most of the time. Such
observance is not headline news.
(d)
It is a function of all legal systems to resolve disputed questions of fact andlaw.
International law has to do this and, because it has only a limited number
of developed legal institutions, it sometimes fails. That, however, is no reason
todoubt its validity as a system of law. Rather, it suggests that
if
international law is tobe on a par with national law, it needs to develop better
institutions responsible forlaw creation and enforcement. In comparison with
national law, international lawmay be regarded as weak law, not because of its
binding quality, but because of itsless organised approach to the problems of
adjudication and enforcement. On theother hand, it has been suggested above that

the existence of such institutions is afeature of national law that may be out of
place in an international system, or atleast not merited to the same degree. For
example, given that international lawregulates the conduct of legal equals, it might
be unwise to have a formal and coer-cive process of law enforcement. All states are
powerful in some measure and allhave the practical ability to inict harm on each
other whether that be economic,political or military. With such a reality, it may be
that the best way to regulate stateconduct is to proceed on the basis of a system of
law that is voluntarily accepted andvoluntarily enforced. This does not mean that
international law forfeits the right to