International Law

International law is best understood as a core international institution, a set of norms, rules and practices created by states and other actors to facilitate diverse social goals, from order and coexistence to justice and human development.   

In modern international society, states have created levels of institutions. They are deep constitutional  institutions, such as the principle of sovereignty, which define the terms of legitimate statehood. Without the institution of sovereignty the world of independent states, and the international politics it engenders, would simply not exist. States have also created fundamental institutions, like international law and multilateralism, which provide the basic rules and practices that shape how states solve cooperation and coordination problems. The foremost institution governing international law is the United Nations.    

According to its Charter, the UN aims:

to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,…to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights,…to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.

In addition to maintaining peace and security, other important objectives include developing friendly relations among countries based on respect for the principles of equal rights and self-determination of peoples; achieving worldwide cooperation to solve international economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian problems; respecting and promoting human rights; and serving as a centre where countries can coordinate their actions and activities toward these various ends.

The United Nations has played a major role in defining, codifying, and expanding the realm of international law. The International Law Commission, established by the General Assembly in 1947, is the primary institution responsible for these activities. The Legal Committee of the General Assembly receives the commission's reports and debates its recommendations; it may then either convene an international conference to draw up formal conventions based on the draft or merely recommend the draft to states. The International Court of Justice reinforces legal norms through its judgments. The commission and the committee have influenced international law in several important domains, including the laws of war, the law of the sea, human rights, and international terrorism.

The work of the UN on developing and codifying laws of war was built on the previous accomplishments of the Hague Conventions (1899–1907), the League of Nations, and the Kellog-Briand Pact (1928). The organization's first concern after World War II was the punishment of suspected Nazi war criminals. The General Assembly directed the International Law Commission to formulate the principles of international law recognized at the Nuremberg trials, in which German war criminals were prosecuted, and to prepare a draft code of offenses against the peace and security of mankind. In 1950 the commission submitted its formulation of the Nürnberg principles, which covered crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. In the following year the commission presented to the General Assembly its draft articles, which enumerated crimes against international law, including any act or threat of aggression, annexation of territory, and genocide. Although the General Assembly did not adopt these reports, the commission's work in formulating the Nürnberg principles influenced the development of human rights law.

The UN also took up the problem of defining aggression, a task attempted unsuccessfully by the League of Nations. Both the International Law Commission and the General Assembly undertook prolonged efforts that eventually resulted in agreement in 1974. The definition of aggression, which passed without dissent, included launching military attacks, sending armed mercenaries against another state, and allowing one's territory to be used for perpetrating an act of aggression against another state. In 1987 the General Assembly adopted a series of resolutions to strengthen legal norms in favour of the peaceful resolution of disputes and against the use of force.

The UN has made considerable progress in developing and codifying the law of the sea as well. The International Law Commission took up the law of the sea as one of its earliest concerns, and in 1958 and 1960, respectively, the General Assembly convened the First and the Second United Nations Conferences on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The initial conference approved conventions on the continental shelf, fishing, the high seas, and territorial waters and contiguous zones, all of which were ratified by the mid-1960s. During the 1970s it came to be accepted that the deep seabed is the “common heritage of mankind” and should be administered by an international authority. In 1973 the General Assembly called UNCLOS III to discuss the conflicting positions on this issue as well as on issues relating to navigation, pollution, and the breadth of territorial waters. The resulting Law of the Sea Treaty (1982) has been ratified by some 140 countries. The original treaty was not signed by the United States, which objected to the treaty's restrictions on seabed mining. The United States signed a revised treaty after a compromise was reached in 1994, though the agreement has yet to be ratified by the U.S. Senate.

The UN has worked to advance the law of treaties and the laws regulating relations between states. In 1989 the General Assembly passed a resolution declaring 1990–99 the UN Decade of International Law, to be dedicated to promoting acceptance and respect for the principles and institutions of international law. In 1992 the General Assembly directed the International Law Commission to prepare a draft statute for an International Criminal Court. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was adopted in July 1998 and later signed by more than 120 countries. The ICC, which is to be located at The Hague upon the ratification of the statute by at least 60 signatory countries, has jurisdiction over crimes against humanity, crimes of genocide, war crimes, and crimes of aggression, pending an acceptable definition of that term. Under the terms of the convention, no person age 18 years or older is immune from prosecution, including presidents or heads of state.

 
Since 1963 the United Nations has been active in developing a legal framework for combating international terrorism. The General Assembly and specialized agencies such as the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency established conventions on issues such as offenses committed on aircraft, acts jeopardizing the safety of civil aviation, the unlawful taking of hostages, and the theft or illegal transfer of nuclear weapons technology. In 2001, in the wake of devastating terrorist attacks that killed thousands in the United States, the General Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee on Terrorism continued work on a comprehensive convention for the suppression of terrorism.