International Laws

Governments lead their respective nations. They formulate and implement laws for people within their jurisdiction to follow. When do national governments become followers? The answer is simple: when they become a part of an international community.

International communities or organizations, such as the UN, are groups formed by nations to resolve conflicts, promote international communication and achieve world peace. Given that, such groups must have a set of rules that nations or their governments must abide by. This is where international law comes in.

International law is the term used for the system of law that governs nations in adherence to recognized standards or values, which may or may not differ from other legal systems. There are three distinct disciplines of international law.

• Public international law. This involves the relationships between actors in the international field such as international organizations, sovereign nations and movements of national liberation. It encompasses numerous areas such as the creation and dissolution of states, international trade, human rights, terrorism and pandemics, among others. It concerns nation-states and not private citizens. However, bear in mind that whatever the nation does in the international arena has an impact on its citizens. The Law of the Sea and UN policies are public international laws.

• Private international law. More commonly called “conflict of laws,” it is distinguished from public international law because it involves conflicts between private individuals. This addresses questions of which jurisdictions law must be applied and which jurisdiction must be allowed to hear a legal dispute between two or more private parties. For instance, if a crime takes place between two parties of different nationalities, private international law should answer who should take the suspect's custody and what laws to apply.

• Supranational law. Also known as the law of supranational organization, it concerns regional agreements with which laws of nation-states are limited or held inapplicable. The supranational law is what the European Union uses.

In the international community, nation-states are like individuals who should follow the rules of the group. It is important to be aware of these laws because whatever happens in the international community affects us directly.