Difference Between National Law and International Law

Difference Between National Law and International Law
Difference between International law and National law
Comparison Between National Law and International Law
Compare Between National Law and International Law

Difference Between National Law and International Law

International law is the law that governs relations between nations and the different nationalities of people that inhabit the different nations.

For instance, piracy on the high seas (in international waters) is a violation of international law. Since it usually occurs in international waters, it involves no nation's particular laws. So the "law of the seas" or international law's prong of maritime law, states that the pirating of a nation's vessels is unlawful against the rights of that nation and its people.

It is easy to think of international law as relating to war and peace, control of international aggression, and the peacekeeping efforts of the United Nations. These are certainly matters, which may involve international law, and are perhaps the most important areas of that law, but they are also areas where international law has most difficulty being effective. For the international legal system, dealing in general with legal relations between countries lacks some of the important features of national legal systems.

International Law has no legislature which means there is no body which possesses a recognized and effective authority to pass legislation, which binds countries. The United Nations General Assembly has considerable influence and does pass resolutions about the rights and duties of countries, but its powers in relation to countries are very much weaker than the powers of a national Parliament over its citizens.

Only the Security Council has power to pass binding resolutions in furtherance of its powers to deal with threats to the peace, breaches of the peace and aggression. Other countries incur obligations in international law only if they choose to, usually by becoming party to a treaty with one or more other countries.

Again, there is nothing in the international legal system corresponding to a police force or an army. It is true that the United Nations has some peace-keeping forces, but these are very small and have to be contributed by member nations, and can operate effectively only with the consent of the countries where there are deployed.

In general, these forces cannot do very much beyond policing political or national boundaries although this, of course can be a difficult and useful function. An operation such as the 1991 deployment of armed forces against Iraq following its invasion of Kuwait is quite exceptional.

Finally, there are no courts of the kind that exist in national legal systems. There are only bodies something like ordinary courts, notably the International Court of Justice (the World Court). However, this court, like other international courts and tribunals, can in general, decide cases only with the consent of the countries concerned; it is therefore, quite different from national courts, in which people can be sued or prosecuted whether they like it or not.

The United Nations and the international legal system generally are sometimes criticized as being ineffective, or not being "law" at all. It is pointed out, quite rightly, that international law did not prevent the Vietnam War or the Iraq-America War or Middle East conflicts