International Law

International Law in United States

International Law Definition

The system of rules which Christian states acknowledge to be obligatory upon them in their relations to each other and to, each other’s subjects. It is the jus inter gentes, as distinguished from the jms gentium. The rules of conduct regulating the intercourse of states. Halleck, Int. Law, 41 ; Davis, Int. Law, i 2. It consists of those rules of conduct which reason deduces as consonant to justice from the nature of the society existing among independent nations, with such definitions and modifications as may be established by mutual consent. Wheaton, Int. Law, § 14. International law has been divided into (1) public, and (2) private, under which division public international law is the law of nations as above defined, while private international law consists of the rules by which courts determine within what national jurisdiction an action or proceeding falls, or by what national law it should be decided. Glenn, Int. Law, § 2. Various divisions of international law have been proposed, but none are of any great importance. One has been into natural and voluntary law, in which latter conventional or treaty law and customary are embraced. Another, somewhat similar, separates international rules into those which are deducible from general natural jus, those which are derived from the idea of estate, and those which grow out of simple compact. Whatever division be made, it is to be observed that nations are voluntary, first, in deciding the question what intercourse they vdll hold with each other; second, that they are voluntary in defining their rights and obligations, moral claims and duties, although these have an objective existence beyond the control of the will of nations; and third, that, wKen international law has arisen by the free assent of those who enter into certain arrangements, obedience to its provisions is as truly in accordance with natural law, which requires the observance of contracts, as if natural law had been intuitively discerned or revealed from heaven, and no consent had been necessary at the outset. ) This definition of International Law is based on The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary. This entry needs to be proofread.

Finding International Law Resources

International Law is comprised of (1) treaties, (2) decisions of “international courts” (e.g., the International Court of Justice), (3) the past practice of nations and (4) the writings of international law scholars. As such, International Law is distinct from “Foreign Law,” which is the law of other countries.

It can be exceptionally hard to find international law materials. One good guide is Germain’s Transnational Law Research. The Georgetown University Law Center posts a useful collection of guides for researching international law. Globalex posts articles on key areas of International Law. Sometimes I have had success searching the catalogs of the Library of Congress, Harvard Law School, Columbia Law School and Georgetown University’s John Wolff International and Comparative Law Library. Also check EISIL, which is “an open database of authenticated primary and other materials across the breadth of international law.” When all else fails I’ve had success relying on the kindness of the International Law Librarians at these and other law schools.

Other places to call include a relevant U.S. government office (e.g., the State Department) or government library — or a relevant government office or library in an involved country. I have also called foreign countries’ embassies and missions to the U.N. (Contact information for U.N. offices is posted on the U.N. Web site (select the link for “UNDP Around The World” at the top of the page)). For European materials, call The Delegation of the Commission of the European Communities (371-3804). One last source: The American Society of International Law Library (202-939-6005).

Oxford University Press publishes the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, described as “an updated, comprehensive work covering the central and essential topics in international law.” Oxford also offers a number of international case law databases called the Oxford Reports on International Law.

The Georgetown Law Library posts a useful collection of international law-related Research Guides and Other Resources.

Lexis and Westlaw, have good databases for U.S. Treaties (INTLAW;USTRTY on Lexis; USTREATIES on Westlaw) and documents selected for publication by ASIL, the American Society of International Law (INTLAW;ASIL on Lexis; ASIL on Westlaw). Also, Westlaw offers an online version of International Legal Materials (ILM) and a database of international law-related articles and treatises (INT-TP).

The WorldII International Library provides a free searchable database of treaties, journal articles, case law and U.N. Resolutions.

For more information: International law is discussed in many of the subject-specific entries, such as ” Environmental Law,” ” Copyrights,” etc. Export Controls are discussed in the International Trade entry.

Researching International Law

The U.S. is a member of the relevant treaties. Zicherman v. Korean Air Lines Co., 516 U.S. 217, 226 (1996) (“a treaty ratified by the United States is … the law of this land, see U. S. Const., Art. II, 2”); Restatement of the Law, Third, Foreign Relations Law of the United States, 114 (1987) (“w]here fairly possible, a United States statute is to be construed so as not to conflict with international law or an international agreement of the United States”) (Charming Betsy rule). In international law, there are also so-called “peremptory norms” in human rights law that apply even to nations that have not ratified a relevant treaty.

International Law in Foreign Legal Encyclopedias

For starting research in the law of a foreign country:

Link Description
International Law International Law in the World Legal Encyclopedia.
International Law International Law in the European Legal Encyclopedia.
International Law International Law in the Asian Legal Encyclopedia.
International Law International Law in the UK Legal Encyclopedia.
International Law International Law in the Australian Legal Encyclopedia.

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International Law in the Context of International Disputes

Relationship Between International Law and U.S. Law in International Civil Litigation

Analysis of the Relationship Between International Law and U.S. Law in relation to the Subject Matter Jurisdiction of U.S. Courts in International Disputes.

International Law

Read more information about International Law in this American Encyclopedia of Law.

Relationship Between International Agreements and U.S. Law

Read more information about Relationship Between International Agreements and U.S. Law in this American Encyclopedia of Law.

Relationship Between Customary International Law and U.S. Law

Read more information about Relationship Between Customary International Law and U.S. Law in this American Encyclopedia of Law.

Presumption That Congressional Legislation is Consistent With International Law

Read more information about Presumption That Congressional Legislation is Consistent With International Law in this American Encyclopedia of Law.

Finding the law: International Law in the U.S. Code

A collection of general and permanent laws relating to international law, passed by the United States Congress, are organized by subject matter arrangements in the United States Code (U.S.C.; this label examines international law topics), to make them easy to use (usually, organized by legal areas into Titles, Chapters and Sections). The platform provides introductory material to the U.S. Code, and cross references to case law. View the U.S. Code’s table of contents here.

Comments

2 responses to “International Law”

  1. International Avatar
    International

    The international law branch of law in the U.S. just may be the most sorely neglected in regard to public digital access to the law. The official repository of a given treaty is set by the treaty itself and the official repository is frequently not available on the Web. And treaties in the U.S. must always be interpreted subject to any reservations made by the U.S. during the ratification process, but reservations are even more difficult to find than treaties and frequently are not available.

    There is a further problem with implementing statutes that (almost?) invariably incorporate the treaty by reference, without repeating its text and usually without information as to reservations, producing what should be absurd, large swaths of the U.S. Code that are not contained within that Code.

    Even worse, you frequently hit formerly very large paper documents that have been scanned into PDFs that defy searchability. A good portion of the U.N.’s treaty reservations records are available online only in such form, often hundreds of pages in a single scanned PDF. So to search them, one needs to download them, use some program capable of converting the scanned PDFs into a searchable format, e.g., a recent version of WordPerfect, and then index them prior to conducting the search.

    I could go on and on about the difficulties of searching international law that either governs directly or should be taken into account when interpreting U.S. statutory law, but my point is that any Digital Public Law Library of America of necessity needs to include international law.

    Paul E. Merrel

  2. International Avatar
    International

    The international law branch of law in the U.S. just may be the most sorely neglected in regard to public digital access to the law. The official repository of a given treaty is set by the treaty itself and the official repository is frequently not available on the Web. And treaties in the U.S. must always be interpreted subject to any reservations made by the U.S. during the ratification process, but reservations are even more difficult to find than treaties and frequently are not available.

    There is a further problem with implementing statutes that (almost?) invariably incorporate the treaty by reference, without repeating its text and usually without information as to reservations, producing what should be absurd, large swaths of the U.S. Code that are not contained within that Code.

    Even worse, you frequently hit formerly very large paper documents that have been scanned into PDFs that defy searchability. A good portion of the U.N.’s treaty reservations records are available online only in such form, often hundreds of pages in a single scanned PDF. So to search them, one needs to download them, use some program capable of converting the scanned PDFs into a searchable format, e.g., a recent version of WordPerfect, and then index them prior to conducting the search.

    I could go on and on about the difficulties of searching international law that either governs directly or should be taken into account when interpreting U.S. statutory law, but my point is that any Digital Public Law Library of America of necessity needs to include international law.

    Paul E. Merrel

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