International law

International law is a body of laws, regulations, and accepted practices by which different nations throughout the world interact with each other as well as with their own citizens and citizens of other countries. The term " international law" can refer to three distinct legal disciplines: public international law, private international law (or conflict of laws), and supranational law (or the law of supranational organizations).

Public international law concerns the relationships between the entities or legal persons which are considered the subjects of international law, including sovereign nations, the legal status of the Holy See, international organizations (including especially intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations), and in some cases, movements of national liberation (wars of national liberation) and armed insurrectional movements.

Private international law governs conflicts between private persons, rather than states. It concerns the questions of which jurisdiction should be permitted to hear a legal dispute between private parties, and which jurisdiction's law should be applied, therefore raising issues of international law.

Supranational law concerns at present regional agreements where the special distinguishing quality is that laws of nation states are held inapplicable when conflicting with a supranational legal system.

Domains of International Law

International Law includes the basic, classic concepts of law in national legal systems - status, property, obligation, and tort (or delict). It also includes substantive law, procedure, process and remedies. International Law is rooted in acceptance by the nation states which constitute the system. The following are major substantive fields of international law:

International economic law

International security law

International criminal law

International environmental law

Diplomatic law

International humanitarian law or law of war.

International human rights law

Sources of International Law

Customary law and conventional law are primary sources of international law. Customary international law results when states follow certain practices generally and consistently out of a sense of legal obligation. Conventional international law derives from international agreements and may take any form that the contracting parties agree upon. Customary law and law made by international agreement have equal authority as international law. Parties may assign higher priority to one of the sources by agreement. However, some rules of international law are recognized by international community as peremptory, permitting no derogation. Such rules can be changed or modified only by a subsequent peremptory norm of international law.

General principles common to systems of national law is a secondary source of international law. There are situations where neither conventional nor customary international law can be applicable. In this case a general principle may be invoked as a rule of international law because it is a general principle common to the major legal systems of the world and not inappropriate for international claims.

Subjects of International Law

Traditionally, states were the main subject of international law. Increasingly, individuals and non-state international organizations have also become subject to international regulation.