International Law

International Law

Introduction

International law consists of international legal standards governing the laws of the States. International agreements and treaties, diplomatic notes, amendments and protocols are part of this branch of law. The rules pertaining to international law may be bilateral (between two parties) or multilateral (more than two parties).

Discussion

Public vs. Private International Law

Public international law is a special legal framework governing relations between states; international organizations and some other subjects of international communication.

Private International Law (IPL) is agreements and practices that govern the civil, labour and other relations, complicated by a foreign element. The main specific features of private international law are the existence of legal relationships governed by a foreign element and the use of private international law.

For the international public law, the word stands for extra-national international legal regulation of relations (usually bilateral). For private international law, it means that the regulated relationship beyond one state and are related to the legal systems of other countries.

The major difference between international economic law and international business law is the difference between trade and transaction. Transaction is undertaken between two private individuals, regulated through private law, trade is a matter of protectionism, or mercantilism and public policy. International economic law is a law of competition; it regales dos and don'ts of national and international competition. All these are interrelated because competition happens between states and individuals within a country, which is covered by private law. Similarly, there is a competition of resources among states and districts, which is covered by public laws. These domestic competitions are taken to global stage and it is here when international economic law comes in. International economic law regulates the international trading and competition, and regulates the affect of trade by nationals on international stage. Since, all these laws are inter-related, any change in one law have implication for another law.

Let's analyze the impact of environmental law by GATT on national business. Once a national business starts to generate demand from international buyers, it will begin international trading. The international economic law will make sure that this international trade does not promote poor environmental conditions or poor labor practices. Therefore, organization such as WTO might implement restrictions on such trade. This will push national firm and national regulators to implement better environmental policy. Hence, international law will affect national law..

Example of Basel II Standard

Basel II is an evolved version of Basel I, based on three pillars. The first pillar is minimum capital requirements to reduce the costs of insolvency and risks. However, the standards do not define a default and leave it to the discretion of local regulators. Furthermore, regulators also use traditional lines of responding to regulatory and taxation needs, which mean that, the system does not promote uniformity in reflecting actual risks, as all countries define default separately.

Similarly, the operational risk is not defined in the standards. The second pillar is also defected due to the ineffectiveness of pillar one, as financial supervisor needs to take greater ...