public international law

Law

2022

We explain what public international law is, its principles and other characteristics. Also, private international law.

Public international law seeks the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

What is public international law?

Public international law is the branch of law dealing with international relations between state and international subjects. It is the legal framework by which the international community is governed, in order to guarantee the peace and the just resolution of conflicts that may arise from their mutual relationships.

In this fundamental perspective it is distinguished from private international law. Unlike other branches of law, public international law deals with legally mediating between sovereign entities.

Consequently, it does not consist of a coercive legal order, as occurs with the legal apparatus within each specific country. On the contrary, it is mainly coordinative, that is, it seeks to conduct the conflict through regular, peaceful and fair channels.

Thus, it makes possible the construction of regulations accepted by all participating States and to which they voluntarily agree to submit. Said norms could even have a supra-constitutional rank, as is the case of the Human rights Fundamentals.

History of public international law

Since ancient times, there has been war between the different nations and human civilizations, in their struggle to control resources or expand their cultures Y religions. However, in most of the conflicts of the history there was some kind of minimal legal order.

It could be informal or based on habit, that governs the behaviors "Normal" in a confrontation and those considered abominable. In fact, by appealing to this type of rule, often of religious origin, it was possible to sign the peace between empires at war or at least agree on the terms of some form of honorable surrender.

The oldest treatise of this type comes from Mesopotamian antiquity, and involves the cities Lagash and Umma Chaldeans around 3200 BC. C. This treaty would have allowed them to fix their borders at the end of a war.

On the other hand, the first modern case of this type of international legal instance was that of The Claims of Alabama, at the end of the American Civil War, which was tried by a court in Geneva.

However, as is often the case, there is a discrepancy among the authors regarding the specific origin of Public International Law. Some consider it as old as the human nations themselves, who agreed on the terms for trading or exchanging primitive goods.

On the contrary, other authors suppose its formal beginning from the 16th or 17th century, at which time sovereign nations formally appeared willing to relate to each other in terms of legal equality, as happened in 1648 with the Treaties of Westphalia.

Sources of international public law

International public law has as sources the various and varied treaties signed by the States bilaterally or multilaterally, such as pacts, conventions, memoranda, joint declarations, etc., as well as the so-called international custom, recognized in practice by the States. and by the general principles of right.

To this must be added the legal documents emanating from international courts and multilateral legal organizations (such as the UN) that serve as mediator in local and regional conflicts, providing a legal framework of mutual understanding between the nations in dispute.

Subjects of public international law

Organizations like the UN are subjects of public international law.

The subjects of public international law are:

  • The nation states, duly recognized by their peers and by the international community as such.
  • The International Organizations of mediation and international agreement, such as the United Nations, the International Labor Organization, etc.
  • The belligerent community and the national liberation movements, in certain cases in which they are recognized as political and not criminal actors.
  • The natural person, as a passive subject of international law, receives from it obligations and rights.

Characteristics of public international law

Public international law is based on the agreement that relations between nations must be for mutual benefit, and that they are always preferable to war.

Said relationships of cooperation, rivalry or exchange must therefore be governed by voluntary treaties to which all countries that sign them must submit, considering that said order is independent of who exercises their rights. governments.

The instances of public international law, thus, are decentralized and minimally coercive bodies, dynamic and endowed with a certain relativity with respect to international legal duties, that is, they may always be negotiated and subject to political work.

Principles of public international law

The principles of public international law uphold above all the right to sovereignty of nations. This means that by agreeing with other countries or signing international treaties they are not sacrificing their autonomy and legal self-determination, but rather by agreeing on a space for international mediation that allows mutual agreements to be reached.

For this reason, many authors question the legal nature of this branch of law, since, in principle, there is no international body from which international laws emanate and that can coerce States to abide by them, but they will be the result of the voluntary agreement of nations.

Other fundamental precepts of Public International Law in the contemporary world are:

  • The "right" to war. Just as there are peace laws, there are also laws that govern what is acceptable in a war situation, and that legitimize the use of armed force by one State against another. These conditions are three: in defense of one's own national security, at the service of a multilateral collective security mission or "peacekeeping force" by an international organization such as the United Nations, or when it is done at the service of a regional authority. in charge of ensuring peace.
  • Treatment of foreigners. The law that dictates respect for embassies, consulates and diplomatic representations of different types, which provide services to their compatriots on foreign soil, and which can mediate in specific legal events regarding the citizens of your nationality.
  • Fundamental human rights. Above any other treaty, the agreement on the fundamental rights of the human being and the punishment of those who violate them is one of the most universally accepted and defended precepts by the International organizations of peace.

Private international right

The two main branches of international law, public and private, differ from each other in that they are interested in the legislation international from different points of view. Between them there is a distinction analogous to that which exists within the jurisprudence between private right and the public Law.

Private international law deals with legal relationships of the populations from different countries. For its part, public international law deals with relations between different countries and States, such as territorial conflicts or disputes between their respective countries. sovereignties.

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