PUBLIC INT’L LAW
BACKGROUNDER
Prof David K. Linnan
USC LAW # 783
Unit One
NATURE OF SYSTEM
NATURE OF SYSTEM, IS IT ABOUT STATES VERSUS
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS?
WHO OR WHAT CAN MAKE A CLAIM, AND WHERE?
IS THERE A PERMANENT JUDICIAL BODY WITH MANDATORY
JURISDICTION AKA WORLD COURT?
IS THERE A CENTRAL ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITY AKA
SHERIFF?
WHO “MAKES” THE LAW AKA LEGISLATURE?
[Wonder how to distinguish “international” from “comparative” law,
see http://www.lfip.org/laws827/link-comp&asianlaw.htm]
IS IT REALLY LAW?
Is int’l law really law?
Divine order/law
Secular natural law
Sovereignty and positivism
Jurisprudential arguments
[Off the record]
[How does int’l law look like from the perspective of an “exotic” legal
system to us or others, see
http://www.lfip.org/laws827/link02-islamiclaw.htm &
http://www.dawanet.com/nonmuslim/intro/war/war5.html &
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09073a.htm]
DIFFERING APPROACHES (1)
Differing approaches floating around past
100 years (like styles of constitutional law)
1. Traditional law between nations (state
centered, hidden sovereignty ideas)
[Off the record]
2. Human rights law post WW II
(individual rights ideas, but also issues
social & economic versus political &
civil rights, natural law reborn?)
[Off the record]
DIFFERING APPROACHES (2)
Differing approaches floating around past 100 years
(like styles of constitutional law)(cont’d)
3.
Increasing emphasis on multilateral
organizations (League of Nations 1919, UN
Charter 1945, structural issues of
independent organizational life versus
member political control and
obligations/rights distinctions)
[Off the record]
4.
Changing int’l scene introducing different
groups of states and views (e.g., Socialist
states, ex-colonies)
[Off the record]
DIFFERING APPROACHES (3)
Differing approaches floating around past 100 years
(like styles of constitutional law)(cont’d)
5.
Increasing legalization of numerous areas like
international economic law (EU, NAFTA,
GATT/WTO, IMF, World Bank) or
environmental law, “third generation”
human rights law in terms of youth, gender,
sustainable development, etc.
[Off the record]
6.
Increasing judicialisation attempted (e.g., ICC
and Rome Treaty, ad hoc tribunals for Former
Yugoslavia, Rwanda)
[Off the record]
DIFFERING APPROACHES (4)
Differing approaches floating around past 100 years
(like styles of constitutional law)(cont’d)
7.
Media & pressure groups (NGOs)
increasingly try to affect int’l behavior
often through the domestic political process
[Off the record]
8.
Int’l relations cross-over into politics (e.g.,
hegemon-speak, battles of civilizations,
preemptive war doctrines)
[Off the record]
DIFFERING APPROACHES (5)
Differing approaches floating around past
100 years (like styles of constitutional
law)(cont’d)
9. Intellectual attempts at recasting into
self-enforcing structure (e.g., Draft Code
on State Responsibility)
[Off the record]
SOVEREIGNTY
What is sovereignty, and what are its
pluses and minuses conceptually
(e.g., self-preservation and
preemptive war post-9/11)?
INTERDEPENDENCE
Communalism and economic
interdependence are currently
trendy, what about them (community
of nations, etc. as alleged European
view post 9/11)?
DISTRIB. JUSTICE
Where do development, distributional
justice and path dependency fit (UN
Charter & economic prosperity’s
failure from a developing country
perspective)?
SOURCES OF LAW
Traditional Sources Doctrine
1. Treaty (agreement)
2. Customary law (persistent
behavior & opinio juris)
3. General principles
4. Publicists’ opinions
PLAYERS & APPROACHES (1)
Who are the players pushing different
sources approaches and why under
1. Traditional law of nations
2. Human rights
3. Multilateral organizations
4. Differing groups of states
5. Mushrooming econ & environ law
PLAYERS & APPROACHES (2)
Who are the players pushing different
sources approaches and why under
(cont’d)
6. Judicialisation
7. NGOs
8. Int’l relations views
9. Self-enforcing structures (state
responsibility)
FOREIGN COLLEAGUES
Who are the Indonesians?
Why talk about int’l law with foreigners?
How do we do the videoconferencing?
What is the streaming material for in terms of class
preparation? Connection with the readings? Course page
at http://www.lfip.org/laws783fall04/index.htm
How do we do problems & presentations in class?
LFIP
http://www.lfip.org