Vice President Inaugurates World Congress on International Law

The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari inaugurated the World Congress on International Law on the theme “Relevance of International Law” organised by the Indian Society of International Law (ISIL) at a function here today. He also released online edition of the Journal of ISIL on the occasion. Following is the text of the Vice President’s inaugural address :“I deem it an honour to be invited by the Indian Society of International Law to address the World Congress on International Law. This distinguished galaxy of Justices, Judges of the International Court, legal scholars and lawyers constitutes a formidable and learned audience. The relevance of international law in today’s rapidly changing world, and the new challenges we have to collectively address, is a good subject for serious cogitation. International Law as it is now understood and practiced is of relatively recent origin. It owes its origin primarily to the Westphalian World Order forged in Europe in the 17th century. Its beginnings, modest and limited, coincide with the rise of nation states in Europe, bore its stamp and focused on common values and the reciprocity of interests. The principles of sovereignty and legal equality of states were first enunciated by the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius in 1625. The principles of sanctity of agreements entered into, as also the saving conditionality allowing non-compliance, lent balance to the commitments entered into by nation states. The two World Wars presented fresh challenges to the principles and practices of international law. These related to rectification of boundaries, care of refugees and administration of the territory of the defeated enemy. Efforts to address these and related issues through the creation of the League of Nations were unsuccessful. This failure, and the horrors of World War II, led to appreciation of the necessity of international cooperation and the formation of the United Nations as a body capable of ensuring obedience to international law and maintaining peace. The Preamble of the UN Charter assert this as one of the objectives: “to establish conditions under which justice and respect for obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained.” The period since 1945 has been highly productive in regard to the growth and evolution of international law. International cooperation was widely accepted, though not universally. The first few decades in particular gave cause for optimism. The UN assisted the process of decolonization and the effort to end Apartheid. The UN Multilateral system contributed to the enunciation of normative principles to regulate international conduct. Questions such as disarmament, social development, gender equality, population, food and water and a host of problems relevant for the developing world were addressed. Common trans-national services related to civil aviation, maritime regulations, health, telecommunications, postal systems, refugees, world weather and food security were put in place. 193 nations are now members of the UN and subscribe to its Charter. The ambit of rules of international law has widened and includes intergovernmental organizations, corporations, non-governmental organizations as well as individuals. The founding fathers of India’s Constitution accepted these broad principles and incorporated them in the Directive Principles of State policy. Pursuant to this, the state shall foster respect for international law and treaty obligations of organized people with one another.” The United Nation has its limitations. It is a voluntary association of sovereign nation States. These States have their own aspirations and had sought membership of the UN in their perceived self-interest.For this reason, some parts of international law remain highly contested. These relate to the laws of warfare, to the concept of state sovereignty, and to a full range of self serving interests of the powerful who wish to use international law to further their political, economic and security interests. A case in point is the Charter of the International Court of Justice and its Optional clause.Within the ambit of Public International Law, institutions and organizations have been used to impose unequal treaties and evolve concepts that have encouraged curtailment of sovereignty (Right to Protect), seek intrusive presence within Sovereign States (Peace Keeping and Peace Building). Conflicts of laws in civil law jurisdictions, which constitutes Private International Law, seeks to address disputes between business corporations outside a unified legal framework. This has led to increasing use of commercial arbitration (Under the New York Convention 1958).There is also the growing application of Supra-National law to address global commons and such international issues relating to new technologies, evolutions in genetic sciences and problems presented by pandemics and catastrophic disaster events.Globalisation has...

Vice President Inaugurates World Congress on International Law

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