Law, International

Contributions and Shortcomings

Because enforcement mechanisms are weak or nonexistent, many people, over the centuries, have questioned whether international law is really law rather than merely a collection of moral sentiments. This challenge to the legal character of international law is misleading, and the concern with the weakness of enforcement needs to be [Page 1029]recast to promote greater understanding of contributions and shortcomings. Considered more carefully, it becomes clear that international law carries out many practical roles that allow routine interactions across borders to be conducted in a stable manner. These interactions are based on the mutual interests of all states, covering a wide spectrum of activities, ranging from regulating international postal service, maritime safety, business and banking operations, as well as matters of diplomatic protocol and procedures. By comparison, the most visible enforcement difficulties are related to political activities in which inequalities of power are combined with the antagonistic interests of states, especially in relation to their most serious concerns about territory, resources, and national honor. Here, the absence of enforcement of legal norms exposes weak and vulnerable states to intimidation, intervention, and even attack, and explains the frequency of crises and wars in relations among major states.

International law is more than an instrument of the powerful that supposedly imparts a sense of legitimacy on their claims of control. International law also functions as an instrument of the weak and vulnerable, which follows directly from its emphasis on the equality of states and its claimed relationship to global justice and peaceful settlement of disputes. In effect, weak and disadvantaged states can make creative use of international law as a shield against various forms of abuse, including intervention and exploitation. A century ago, Latin American countries were especially effective and imaginative in developing international law doctrines that protected countries in the Western Hemisphere from economic exploitation by corporations backed by governments in North America and Europe. With the collapse of colonialism, non-Western states became more assertive about their rights under international law, while Western countries abandoned their earlier legal positions that justified uses of force to protect their foreign investments and other special interests.

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