Public International Law Lecture Week 1

Public International Law Lecture 1
Functions of international law
- Regulating international relations through norms:
o Order and stability
 Treaty of Westphalia: international order became an order of
sovereign and equal states, which all had the power on their territory
 Draw clear and precise boundaries and make sure that states have
jurisdiction in their boundaries
o Justice
 International criminal justice
 Human rights
o Dispute-settlement
 (between states)


International law and its others
- International law vs. National law
o Relations between states vs. In a state
o In some circumstances you can invoke international law in the national law
- Public international law vs. Private international law
o Behaviour between states vs. behaviour between individuals, legal relations
between corporations.
o Private international law is actually domestic law
o The rules in these two can be harmonized, for example in a treaty, which can
also regulate private international law, not only public international law.
- International law vs. International relations/ethics
o Many rules of international law are based on ethical prescriptions
o UN Security Council: most important organ
 Who is on that Council?
 Permanent and non-permanent members
o US, Russia, France, China, UK -> Veto
 Victors of Second World War


History of international law
- Very old
- 16th/ 17th century: birth of international law
o Treaty of Westphalia in 1648
o Hugo Grotius
 Important because of written books on War and Peace and On the
Freedom of the High Seas
 One of the fathers of international law
 Netherlands is seen as one of the most important places for
international law -> The Hague