Extent to Which International Treaties Affected the Development of International Law - Essay Example

?Sur Lecturer International law Introduction International law is a set of rules regarded and accepted generally as binding in relations between nations and states. This can refer to public international law, supranational law, or private international law. This paper seeks to provide a comprehensive description of the different sources of international law and to focus on relevant international treaties affecting the development of international business law. The aim of the paper is therefore to identify different sources of international law, and to determine the extent to which international treaties affect the development of international business. Sources of international law are recognized generally as authoritative statements. This is found in the Statute of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Article 38. This specifies possible sources of law that the court shall apply in deciding disputes. These sources of international law include: international conventions which establishes rules, whether particular or general, expressly recognized by the states contesting; the general law principles recognized by civilized nations; international customs evident of general practice and accepted by law; and teachings from publicists and judicial decisions of the various nations and states as a subsidiary means of determining the rule of law (Buergenthal and Sean 19). The mentioned sources of international law, customs, treaties, and principles of law, are referred to by librarians and lawyers with a similar background as the primary sources of international laws. Teachings from the most high qualified publicists and judicial decisions are recognized as secondary sources or evidence of international laws. It should be noted that case laws are only considered as a subsidiary means. This is because even the ICJ decisions itself cannot create any binding precedent. The court decisions have no particular force of binding except between, in respect of that specific case, the parties. Teachings from the most highly qualified publicists may also include organizational work like private institutions and International law Commission. Other sources of international law that recognizes international organization role include resolutions and actions of international governmental organizations like United Nations. Such organizations are also recognized as evidence or sources of international law (Aust 5). The European Union laws have been categorized depending on the sources. The laws grouped under primary sources include; Treaty Articles, Treaty of Lisbon, and Treaty of the European Union. Those categorized under secondary sources include; regulations, decisions, directives, and judgements or decisions of the ECJ. As mentioned earlier in the introduction, international law may be public international law, supranational law, or private international law. Public international law includes Treaty law, international criminal law, law of the sea, and international humanitarian law. These laws govern the existing relationships between international entities and states. The private international on the other hand addresses fundamental issues such as what jurisdiction hears a case, the rules that apply typically when a dispute is subjected to international concern like contract between parties in different countries, and the law concerning what jurisdiction to be applied to particular case issues. Finally, the supranational law, also referred to as supranational organizations concerned with regional agreements in which the nation state laws may be inapplicably held where there is a conflict with a supranational legal system. Some of the examples of supranational framework include the European Court of Justice and European Union law, and the International Court of Justice and the UN Security Council (Buergenthal and Sean 28). The international treaties affect the development of international business in various ways. First the international business law is observed on varying levels: international economic law, which makes part of public international law and is concerned rules that affect business and trade between states; and private international business law, which is concerned with legal law organizations that affect trade and business between entities and individuals in different countries. According to European Union, there is an overlap, significant, between private international business law and international economic law. For example, the European Union affecting economic law between the member nations like monetary union, and the business law that affect entities or individuals in a single market. European Union law for example affects the United Kingdom in various ways. Lack of such awareness may impact negatively on the mastery of the English legal system. There are various treaties that affect the development of international business whose major objectives include: economic and monetary union, establishment of internal market, free movement of citizens, equality, balanced economic growth, promotion of social, economic and territorial cohesion, and competitive economy of social market (Aust 8). The relevant international treaties affecting the development of international business law include: the Treaty of Rome 1957, Maastricht Treaty 1992, Treaty of Nice 2001, Treaty of Amsterdam 1997, and Treaty of Lisbon 2009. These treaties led to the definition of European Union as three pillars which included the legal order of the original Treaties, police and judicial cooperation, and cooperation towards common foreign and security policy. These treaties have had significant effects of the development of international business. Some of these business development effects include: the social policy, which is composed of many jurisdictions such as the working time regulations, consumer contract regulations 1999, business and competition laws, and unfair trading regulations 2008. The primary impact at European level has been the single market introduction. The treaties have also led to the four freedoms in international business development. These are free movement of workers, free movement of capital, freedom to provide services, and free movement of goods. The treaties also ensure social mobility for workers through Article 45 of TFEU, for business through Article 49, and for services through Article 56. On the other hand, the treaties achieves free movement of goods in multiple ways; prohibition on custom duties, prohibition on quotas and MEEs, prohibition on discriminatory taxation, and common customs tariff (Buergenthal and Sean 34). Conclusion In summary, European Union laws and international laws are effective when they are enforceable and accessible. The enforcement is done through the ECJ and EU domestic courts. The treaties promote various elemental principles in connection with international business and trade. International laws effectively promote non-discrimination, principle of transparency, protection through the use of tariffs, and through promotion of regional integration. Generally, the major characteristics of international development business law entails concepts such as flexibility, certainty, resolution of disputes, primacy of agreement, and the application of specialised rules of conflict laws. We can deduce that the general purpose of international trade is the acquisition and exchange of services and/ or good across the state or national boundaries. This leads to the structuring of international trade which is also an effect of international law. International trade is structured into direct exporting, multinational operations, commodity trading, joint ventures, subsidiaries, and counter trades like counter purchase, barter trade, buy back, offset, evidence accounts and switch trading (Aust 11). To sum up, we can infer that international law is a set of rules that are regarded and accepted generally as binding in relations between nations and states. This can be categorised into public international law, supranational law, or private international law. This paper has therefore provided a comprehensive description of the different sources of international law and emphasized on relevant international treaties affecting the development of international business law. The aim of the paper has hence been achieved in identifying the different sources of international law, and determining the extent to which international treaties affect the development of international business. Works Cited Aust, Anthony, Handbook of International Law, New York: SAGE, 2010, 5-11. Buergenthal, Thomas and Sean D. Murphy, Public International Law in a Nutshell, London: Prentice Hall, 2007, 18-34. Read More