Re: [POLITICS/IRAQ] Thank God for the death of the UN (Article)

From: Brett Paatsch (paatschb@ocean.com.au)
Date: Sun Mar 23 2003 - 03:16:21 MST

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    Eliezer writes:

    > [M]any posters have made a strong case that there was never
    > really an international law to begin with.
    >

    I have not seen any such cases, those posted seem to be based
    on a misunderstanding of what international law is.

    Agreements embodied in treaties and in the UN Charter are
    referred to as international law.

    5 people washed up on a desert island or marooned in space could
    define a set of laws to live by if they so choose. It could be that the
    only enforcement on these might be reputations as well.

    But laws, including international laws, that are breached, are still
    laws.

    Under the UN Charter the enforceability of UN resolutions falls
    to the security council. The Security Council in turn derives its law
    enforcing power from the mutual obligations that the permanent
    security council members signed on to when the signed the UN
    Charter.

    If any of them exercise bad faith in relation to the agreed obligations
    then the law may not be *enforced* but it is still the law and there
    are still consequences in breaking agreed laws even if these are
    only consequences for reputations. No existing security council
    member is claiming that international law does not exist.

    > I'm still sad, though. It seems like a tender shoot was trod into
    > the dirt before it could become a tree, even if it wasn't a tree
    > already. International law wouldn't have arisen from nowhere.
    > It would have to be built, step by step.

    International law can be built in large increments by treaties
    (contracts) being signed by the heads of state of nations but the
    difficult bit is to get confidence built into the structure. The whole
    construct that is the current UN Charter came into being (largely)
    in one move when the Charter was ratified.

    Its hard to see how this confidence could arise with President Bush
    still in the Presidency. Too much of the world doesn't trust him.

    - Brett Paatsch

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