Principally International law prohibits Intervention, however in certain exceptional cases it is considered to be valid

“Principally International law prohibits Intervention, however in certain exceptional cases it is considered to be valid”. Discuss

Introduction:

International law is created in 1945 and the current framework of international law is made by United Nations. International law is the set of rules generally regarded and accepted as binding in relations between states and nations. It is needed to organize international relations. International law is basically focuses on national legal system rather than private citizens. International law is consent-based governance. This means that a state member of the international community is not obliged to abide by international law unless it has expressly consented to a particular course of conduct. This is an issue of state sovereignty.

The term “international law” can refer to three distinct legal disciplines:

  • Public international law, which governs the relationship between provinces and international entities. It includes these legal fields: treaty law, law of sea, international criminal law, the laws of war or international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
  • Private international law, or conflict of laws which addresses the questions of which jurisdiction may hear a case, and the law concerning which jurisdiction applies to the issues in the case.
  • Supranational law, the law of supranational organizations, which concerns regional agreements where the laws of nation states may be held inapplicable when conflicting with a supranational legal system when that nation has a treaty obligation to a supranational collective.

Subjects and domains of international law:

Basically states are the main subject of international law and it is includes classic concept of law in national legal system. International economic law, international security law, international criminal law, international environmental law, diplomatic law, international humanitarian law or law of war and international human rights law are the major substantive field of international law.

Sources of International Law:

There are two primary sources of international law. Those are customary law and conventional law. Customary international law results when states follow certain practices generally and consistently out of a sense of legal obligation. Conventional international law derives from international agreements and may take any form that the contracting parties agree upon. Agreements can be made in any matter except to the extent that the agreement conflicts with the rules of international law and basic standards of international conduct or the obligations of a member state under the Charter of the United Nations. International agreements create law for the parties of the agreement. The law which is made by international agreement and the customary law have equal authority as international law. However, some rules of international law are recognized by international community as authoritative, allowing no derogation. Such rules of international law can be changed or modified only by a subsequent authoritative norm of international law.

As far we can see that, international law does not give the permission of omission or addition or any type of involvement. It has to be accepted as it is but some exceptional cases we can see that it receives involvements or changes which is counted as valid.

International law and the Arab-Israeli conflict:

Arab-Israeli conflict was raised in 1967 and it had a big history in its back from 1948. There is a broad international consequence that the actions of nations involved in this Arab-Israeli conflict violate prohibited by international law. Some are the core issues were involved in this conflict. Those are,

  • The legality or otherwise of the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories, and their annexation of East Jerusalem and the Israeli West Bank barrier
  • How legal borders should be decided between Israel and a Palestinian state
  • The legal status of the Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and subsequently.

In the issues of international law, The United Nations General Assembly has voted to apply a resolution to the conflict every year since 1974. In November 30, 2010 the most recent vote was counted. The resolution entitled “Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine”

Most of the parts of international law are based upon principles and norms of America which is developed during 19th century. Lots of questions were raised after the settlement of international law. But all of them have no further implications and also there are lots of changes were needed in terms of situations. Legal issues and rights of the Palestine territory was the big question rose in that Arab-Israeli war.

Since the definition used by United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was originally made on an operational basis rather than dictated by specific international law, because though international law do not allow intervention but in this case to get the solution of the conflict is to make on an operational basis except specific international law. The obligations and rights related to Palestinian refugees under international law are a matter of some debate. The debate centers on questions such as: whether the status of refugees can properly be passed through inheritance to individuals who have never lived in the vacated areas, and whether individuals who have repatriated in other countries can legally claim refugee status. From the 1951, Palestine refugee were excluded from their living place due to the clause that “This Convention shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) protection or assistance.” As interpreted by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), this caused some anomalies, since United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) admits some persons as refugees that are not automatically admitted by the Convention, and, conversely, some of the legal protections given to refugees by the Convention were not available to most Palestinians. Under UNRWA’s operational definition, Palestine refugees are who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict. They are persons whose residents were in Palestine between June 1946 to May 1948. Who are registered with the Agency and who need assistance, UNRWA’s services are available to all those people who are living in its area of operations and meet this definition. UNRWA’s definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948. In 2002, UNHCR adopted a revised interpretation that fills some of these gaps. The BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights published a critical analysis of UNHCR revised interpretation of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

International law and the GAZA War:

On September 15, 2009, a report by United Nations inquiry team was released, which is officially titled “Human Rights in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories: Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict”. This report concluded that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) and Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and possibly it is also crimes against humanity. On October 16, 2009, the UN Human Rights Council endorsed the report. The UN Human Rights Council, as well as many non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch, has accused the Israeli government of violating international law and of using civilians as human shields. Richard Falk the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories and AI said that such actions are in violation of international humanitarian law governing the obligations of an occupying force and the laws of war. The Israeli government has responded to these accusations by stating that the use of force in the Gaza Strip is acts of self-defense rather than punishment. Israeli human rights groups criticized the Israeli military for failing to properly investigate violations of the laws of war in Gaza, despite evidence of possible war crimes.[1] Michael I. Krauss, Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law and Abraham Bell, Director of the International Law Forum at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, argue that the bar on collective punishment forbids the imposition of criminal or military penalties such as, imprisonment, death, etc. on some people for crimes committed by other individuals, leading to the conclusion that none of Israel’s actions involve the imposition of criminal-type penalties.

Proposal to change International Law

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu suggested there were problems with International Law and changes needed to be made in the light of the Goldstone Report. On 21 October 2009 he directed relevant ministries to look into it.Javier Solana, head of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy, expressed understanding of the call to change the laws governing warfare, saying that “in yesterday’s world there were wars of armies against armies and there were laws and conventions that dealt with the conduct of such wars. It is necessary to invest thought to the changing situation in which there is asymmetry between fighting parties, a situation in which it is difficult to implement the classic/old rules of war.” At the same time he stressed that “until new rules are in place we must obey the old ones”.

Professor of International Law William Schabas chair of the International Institute for Criminal Investigation law told Israeli Army Radio he thought “the fact that Netanyahu says he wants to change the laws of war is almost an admission that Israel violated them”. He predicted it was very unlikely the world would support such an initiative. Former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler said that the current laws of war are sufficient, but what really needs to be changed is their selective application to Israel alone.

Recent Changes to International Law:

Modern international law is different from the earlier European imperialism. The United Nations Charter requires members not to threaten, or use force, against other States. Reverse from before, international law is now also deals with human rights of the people and individuals. Now the principle of international law is all people have the right to self-determination. These means people can choose their own political status, economic, cultural and social destinies. And the other principle of international law is prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, gender, colour, sex and different opinions and also language, religion, birth, social origin etc. International law may get changed more with the change of time.

Conclusion:

International law is made for the states and nations. It helps to bind a relation between nations or states. But recently, international law has redefined its principles to include relations between states and individuals, and relations between international organizations. Though international law prohibits intervention but during the conflict of Arab-Israeli and the war of Gaza, international law needs some involvement which is now considered to be

References

Held, D. (2003). The changing structure of international law: sovereignty transformed?.p162. Retrieved from: www.polity.co.uk/global/pdf/GTReader2eHeld.pdf

International Law. Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_law

International Law. (2010). Cornel University Law School. Retrieved from: http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/international_law

International law and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_law_and_the_Arab%E2%80%93Israeli_conflict

International law and the Gaza war. Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Law_and_the_Gaza_War

Recent changes to International Law. Retrieved from: http://www.nfsa.gov.au/digitallearning/mabo/tn_10.shtml

[1] International law and the Gaza war. Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Law_and_the_Gaza_War

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