Functions and Characteristics of International Law

Characteristics and Purposes of Law

The inherent nature of human beings is their unpredictability in terms of behavioural conduct. States, groups and international organisations, like individuals who constitute membership of these social formations, suffer from this innate problem. Therefore, for law to really serve its purposes, a competent and constituted body that has recognised authority must make such law. It must also be ultimately enforceable; any law that cannot be enforced is no law. It must also be dynamic because society in which it operates is dynamic. Law should also be consensual. International law is one of consensus rather than one of force. Even in the national society laws are only laws when one consents to it. It might be out of fear of reprisal or coercion.

Law generally serves the following purposes in any society. Law regulates conduct, maintains peace, and provides protection and means of achieving justice.

Specifically, law serves as a tool of order; as a tool order, it promotes order within the national and international society. There is no denying the fact that a comprehensive set of rules, regulations, obligations, rights, legal doctrines and decisions of national and international tribunals on legal matters does help to promote international order. Law regulates the behaviour of the citizenry. Without law, society would have been disorganised and become ungovernable (Kolawole, 1997).

A scholar have identified the functions of international law, which include minimising frictions between and among states, stabilising the behaviour of states, facilitating cooperation between and among states, protecting individuals, settling disputes and serving as a tool of public relations and propaganda (Adeniran, 1983).

International law also serves as an instrument of national policy. It contributes to a nation's means of attaining its objectives in foreign policy. It also serves as integrative force, in the world community, since no state can live in isolation, it atomised the entire states and people of the world into one whole as they are all subjects of the law without prejudice to race, colour or class (Ajayi, 2000).

The article is provided by Henan Hongxing,which is the professional manufacturer of complete sets of mining machinery, for example,Vibratory feeder, it is always doing the best in products and service.You can visit Hongxing at jaw crusher:http://www.hxjqchina.com/product-list_11.html