International law

International law, deals with the relationships between states, or between persons or entities in different states. It sub-divides into "public international law" and private international law (also called conflict of laws). When used without an adjective, "international law" generally refers to "public international law." Thus, public international law is defined as "the system of law which regulates the activities of entities possessing international personality." This article will concentrate on this aspect.

Interpretation of International Law

Where there are disputes about the exact meaning and application of national laws, it is the responsibility of the courts to decide what the law means. In international law as a whole, there are no courts which have the authority to do this. It is generally the responsibility of states to interpret the law for themselves. Unsurprisingly, this means that there is rarely agreement in cases of dispute.

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The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties writes on the topic of interpretation that:

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: "A treaty shall be interpreted in good faith in accordance with the ordinary meaning to be given to the terms of the treaty in their context and in the light of its object and purpose." (article 31(1))

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This is actually a compromise between three different theories of interpretation:

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• The textual approach is a restrictive interpretation which bases itself on the "ordinary meaning" of the text, the actual text has considerable weight.
• A subjective approach considers the idea behind the treaty, treaties "in their context", what the writers intended when they wrote the text.
• A third approach bases itself on interpretation "in the light of its object and purpose", i.e. the interpretation that best suits the goal of the treaty, also called "effective interpretation".

These are general rules of interpretation; specific rules might exist in specific areas of international law.

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