INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL LAW

Justice and injustice recognize no national boundaries. As the world becomes more aggressive economically, ethnically, as well as politically, some sort of recognizable international law must exist to settle disputes, calm anger, and mete out fair justice to all, regardless of the size or importance of their native lands. On the following pages, we will; examine five distinct areas of international law, where it has succeeded, where it is failing, and where our class discussions have led us.

TERRITORIAL JURISDICTION (TERRITORIAL QUESTIONS)

"Idealists have long looked to international adjudication as a means for authoritatively and peacefully settling international disputes" (Janis 1999 113). Perhaps the key word in the author's statement is "authoritatively". While the author claims (210) that the UN is already twice as successful as the old League of Nations, the fact that territorial disputes continue to upset the world's balance is of great concern.

Territorial disputes, from Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia, to the Iraqi claim (the cause of the 1991 Gulf War) that a part of Kuwait belonged, historically, to Iraq; the dispute between Iraq and Iran, the enmity between mainland China and Taiwan, North and South Korea, the dismemberment and territorial claims of the various former Soviet Union states are only the tip of the iceberg, exacerbated, perhaps, by what is the most unsolvable dispute of all:

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ither have, have bought, or have stolen nuclear arms to use for its religious, ethnic, or political gains against its neighbors. The UN's attempt to discover any such weapons in Iraq, a team of inspectors headed by Hans Blix, went searching and seemingly found nothing. Now, it is the US and Britain doing the searching, with the rest of the international community on the sidelines, uninvolved and unwanted. No international law is in force. The danger of the use of force is as great now as ever. The Have's are no longer impregnable. The Have-nots with money (i.e. the Middle Eastern Islamic nations) are buying Western destructive technology and may use it, when the time comes. These countries see the U.S. and Western European countries as the Big White Satan, and the truly militant Islamists want not only protection from possible war against them, but the capability of a first strike. We already know that some of the Islamic terrorists have rudimentary powerful weapons, not merely potentially nuclear capability, but powerful explosives which have already destroyed the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and in Nigeria, and were, no doubt responsible for other terrorist bombings in Europe and the Near East., not to mention the Septe
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Approximate Word count = 3399
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)

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