Functions of International Law
1. Regulation of interactions and relations between states in an orderly and efficient
manner
2. It plays a communication and facilitation role and establishes the rights and
responsibilities of states in the international system.
3. It creates, maintains, and operates a functioning of international regimes. “Regimes
involve the cooperation and collaboration of individuals or groups, without solutions
imposed from some higher authority, and with the relevant participants willing to engage
in self-regulation (and enforcement) to achieve some good or protect an existing
common-pool resource,” e.g., International Air Traffic, Postal Services, Ocean Lanes,
and other global commons.
Functions of IL…
4. It limits the effect of disorder that often leads to conflict in the international system -
conflict resolution mechanism/function
5. It functions to identity and embody the idea of a society of sovereign states, which limits
the use of force and promotes the need for cooperation and collaboration. For example,
the Acts of the Vienna Congress (1815), the Peace Treaty of 1856 (ending the Crimean
War), and the acts of the Berlin Congress (1884-1885).
6. Its mechanisms for carrying out its duties range from established Courts, e.g., ICJ, to ad
hoc tribunals & Commissions to hear and settle specific cases.
International Arbitration
● Voluntary submission of disputes to a third party; dates back to classical Greek
city-states and Medieval Europe.
● Its modern foundation is the General Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and navigation
(1794) between the U.S. and Great Britain, which resolved lingering issues from the
Revolutionary War.
● It is a means of settling disputes when diplomacy has failed
● Alabama Claims arbitration of 1872 - U.S. vs. U.K. (international tribunal ordered U.K. to
pay the U.S. $15 million at the time - a precedent for other bilateral treaties resolved by
tribunal)
Forms of Arbitration - 3 Types
1. Appointment of a Comission of Arbitrators - equal number from each party and a neutral
party. Sometimes, the Queen of England or the Pope (mostly through their
representatives).
2. The Hague Permanent Court of Arbitrators - it is not a regular court. It is an institutional
framework designed to facilitate arbitration by providing a list of jurists and a bureau with
premises, staff, and a library. Parties can choose from the list provided by the Court.
Rarely used because it is expensive, rigid, formal, and affords less control over the
deliberations by the disputants.
, 3. International Claims Tribunal - consists of an uneven number of persons - 3 or 5 - who
decide cases by the majority vote. Established by a Treaty Agreement between 2 or
more states.
** The actual substance of the process involves individuals and corporations making
commercial claims - usually in the aftermath of hostels or terrorism.
How Arbitration Works
The Agreement to settle a dispute may be in an editing Treaty; or an agreement called
COMPROMIS - which sets out how the arbitration is to proceed, and what general principles
apply.
● For example, International Arbitration is entirely consensual - and requires consent of
both parties.
● Once consent is given, a state cannot back away.
1. Negotiate the membership & composition of the arbitral body. Equal # of nationals and
an agreed neutral
2. How arbitration is to be conducted; number of written and order of submission
COMPROMIS – a tool of Arbitration…
3. How a decision will be made, if separate opinions are allowed, and if a decision will be
published. Lastly, how the arbitration costs will be covered.
4. Criteria that the Tribunal must apply in making its decision, and what the effects of the
award will be.
The Logic of Legal Approaches
Given that:
1. Disagreements and conflicts abound in the international system, where states are
interdependent
2. While disagreements are welcome, their persistence and likely conflict create more costs
and benefits for the parties and the system as a whole
3. Disputants cannot always settle their own disagreements
● Legal approaches create conditions where semi-permanent actors and processes take
control over the settlement of a disagreement out of the hands of the disputants into the
hands of a third party.
● The legal process/decision/award is binding on the disputants.
Legal Approaches
● States’ permission is needed to initiate the legal process
● States face competing incentives to bind other states while retaining their own autonomy
- essentially, states seek predictability in other states’ behavior while maximizing their
own autonomy.
To solve the above challenges:
1. States are asked to recognize a court’s jurisdiction - subject to conditions specified by
states
1. Regulation of interactions and relations between states in an orderly and efficient
manner
2. It plays a communication and facilitation role and establishes the rights and
responsibilities of states in the international system.
3. It creates, maintains, and operates a functioning of international regimes. “Regimes
involve the cooperation and collaboration of individuals or groups, without solutions
imposed from some higher authority, and with the relevant participants willing to engage
in self-regulation (and enforcement) to achieve some good or protect an existing
common-pool resource,” e.g., International Air Traffic, Postal Services, Ocean Lanes,
and other global commons.
Functions of IL…
4. It limits the effect of disorder that often leads to conflict in the international system -
conflict resolution mechanism/function
5. It functions to identity and embody the idea of a society of sovereign states, which limits
the use of force and promotes the need for cooperation and collaboration. For example,
the Acts of the Vienna Congress (1815), the Peace Treaty of 1856 (ending the Crimean
War), and the acts of the Berlin Congress (1884-1885).
6. Its mechanisms for carrying out its duties range from established Courts, e.g., ICJ, to ad
hoc tribunals & Commissions to hear and settle specific cases.
International Arbitration
● Voluntary submission of disputes to a third party; dates back to classical Greek
city-states and Medieval Europe.
● Its modern foundation is the General Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and navigation
(1794) between the U.S. and Great Britain, which resolved lingering issues from the
Revolutionary War.
● It is a means of settling disputes when diplomacy has failed
● Alabama Claims arbitration of 1872 - U.S. vs. U.K. (international tribunal ordered U.K. to
pay the U.S. $15 million at the time - a precedent for other bilateral treaties resolved by
tribunal)
Forms of Arbitration - 3 Types
1. Appointment of a Comission of Arbitrators - equal number from each party and a neutral
party. Sometimes, the Queen of England or the Pope (mostly through their
representatives).
2. The Hague Permanent Court of Arbitrators - it is not a regular court. It is an institutional
framework designed to facilitate arbitration by providing a list of jurists and a bureau with
premises, staff, and a library. Parties can choose from the list provided by the Court.
Rarely used because it is expensive, rigid, formal, and affords less control over the
deliberations by the disputants.
, 3. International Claims Tribunal - consists of an uneven number of persons - 3 or 5 - who
decide cases by the majority vote. Established by a Treaty Agreement between 2 or
more states.
** The actual substance of the process involves individuals and corporations making
commercial claims - usually in the aftermath of hostels or terrorism.
How Arbitration Works
The Agreement to settle a dispute may be in an editing Treaty; or an agreement called
COMPROMIS - which sets out how the arbitration is to proceed, and what general principles
apply.
● For example, International Arbitration is entirely consensual - and requires consent of
both parties.
● Once consent is given, a state cannot back away.
1. Negotiate the membership & composition of the arbitral body. Equal # of nationals and
an agreed neutral
2. How arbitration is to be conducted; number of written and order of submission
COMPROMIS – a tool of Arbitration…
3. How a decision will be made, if separate opinions are allowed, and if a decision will be
published. Lastly, how the arbitration costs will be covered.
4. Criteria that the Tribunal must apply in making its decision, and what the effects of the
award will be.
The Logic of Legal Approaches
Given that:
1. Disagreements and conflicts abound in the international system, where states are
interdependent
2. While disagreements are welcome, their persistence and likely conflict create more costs
and benefits for the parties and the system as a whole
3. Disputants cannot always settle their own disagreements
● Legal approaches create conditions where semi-permanent actors and processes take
control over the settlement of a disagreement out of the hands of the disputants into the
hands of a third party.
● The legal process/decision/award is binding on the disputants.
Legal Approaches
● States’ permission is needed to initiate the legal process
● States face competing incentives to bind other states while retaining their own autonomy
- essentially, states seek predictability in other states’ behavior while maximizing their
own autonomy.
To solve the above challenges:
1. States are asked to recognize a court’s jurisdiction - subject to conditions specified by
states
