Do International Law Deserves to be called Law?

These two incidents from recent long time probably sums up the reasons why many people run across multinational law as something less than real law, if not an outright contradiction in terms. For a fundamental component of our everyday modelion of law is the element of enforcement (Kelsen, 1966, p. 19-20). The law solemnly establishes speed limits on our highways, and we decl ar that good citizens have a duty to obey it -- besides we quietly acknowledge that it is the nemesis of sanction, of the flashing red light of the patrol car, that keeps our foot collide with the accelerator.

If we associate the law with the police, then, it is not surprising that we observe the concept of transnational law a difficult one, for there are clearly no effective "police" in international affairs. At one time it was hoped that the United Nations would fulfill the federal agency of international policeman, but the record of UN enforcement has been spotty at best.

Should we then take international law seriously, or regard it moreover as a pious platitude, to be invoked when convenient for semipolitical or propaganda purposes, and ignored otherwise? In this report it exit be argued that international law -- in spite of its unvarnished shortcomings, particularly in the area of enforcement - is indeed a valid form of law, and one which for important reasons deserves our respect and support.

We entrust find that -- in spite of the sad record of war and international lawlessness -- that peace within interna

An outstanding recent example of this is the predicament of Iran. The holding of diplomats as hostages seemed to have no immediate ill consequences for Iran - until we look at the sequel. The Iran-Iraq war, lead by Saddam Hussein, had begun in a decipherable act of Iraqi aggression against Iran.

The Iraqis (claiming the Shah of Iran had forced them into an unfair treaty) invaded Persian territory instead of seeking redress under foreign law.

tional law is still the primary mode of interaction betwixt nations. The world is not Beirut writ large. International governance is not a Habbesian jungle, a war of all against all. not only do nations carry on an immense embody of everyday business in a lawful way, but even nations with deep enmities between them do manage (most of the time) to seek peaceful redress of their differences through international law.

Kelsen, Hans. (1966) Principles of International Law. second ed.

The events surveyed above, and many others as well, seem to cast deep head upon the concept of international law as a meaningful form of law. It seems that international law has force only when military strength exists to back it up -- and if the military strength is there, it will be substance abused whether the sanction of international law supports that use or not.

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