What is International Law

Law has been derived from the German word “lag” which means something fixed or unchanged. Different writers have defined law in different ways. Holland defines law as “law is a general rule of external action enforced by a sovereign political authority”. In the same way, Salmon defines law as “the body of principles recognized and applied by the state in the administration of justice”. In general terms, we can say that law is a general rule of human conduct, taking cognizance of only external actions, recognized and framed by the state and enforced by its coercive authority.

There are several characteristics of law. Some of them are Uniformity, universality, externality, content, formulation, and sanction.

Besides this, to understand the law more deeply, there are three schools of jurisprudence of law. The first school of jurisprudence of las is of “Analytical school of positivist”, the second school is of “historical school”, and the third one is “sociological school of jurisprudence”.

In terms of sources of law, there are six main sources of law. This includes custom or usage, religion, judicial review, scientific commentaries, equality, and the most recent legislation.

If we talk about kinds of law, then this includes national law, constitutional law, ordinary law, public law, administrative law, general law, private law, substantiative and procedural law, criminal law and procedure, civil law and procedure, and many others.

One the other hand, by morality, we mean the moral opinions, rules, and sentiments which are actually prevalent among the people. In morality, a man can think and judge as he himself thinks right and wrong. besides this, moral rules are enforced by the conscience or opinion of people. Moreover, morality is subjective. It varies from person to person.

In the same way, we can define international law as, “Those laws and rules which regulate relations and dealing among states and actions of the world are called internal laws”. Without these laws, there will be no peace at the international level. Professor Brierly has defined international law as “The body of rules which civilized states observe in their dealing with each other, these rules being enforced by each particular state according to its’ own moral standard and convenience”. In the same way, Professor Fenwick has defined international law as “The body of general principle and specific rules which are binding upon the members of the international community in their mutual relations”.