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Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff CollegeProgramme:
International RelationsTopic: Issues of International Law [National
v International law] The Experience of the Suez Canal Date: April
8, 2014Time: 1200 1330 hrs Napoleon Kurantin PhD.
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Outline of presentation Introduction _ topic
Definition__ International law
Sources of International Law
Domestic Analogies
Predictability and Legitimacy
Application__ Suez Canal
Conclusion_ questions and comments
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Topic: Intervention, Institutions, and Regional conflicts: The
Suez Canal
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez CanalIntroduction __ sovereignty and
intervention:
According to Nye (1993), with the end of the Cold War, major war
has become less likely, but regional conflicts such as the Gulf war
will persist, and there will be pressures for outside states and
international institutions to intervene.
However, non-intervention in the internal affairs of sovereign
states is a basic norm of international law. Non-intervention is a
powerful norm because it affects both order and justice.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez CanalIntroduction __ sovereignty and
intervention:
Order sets a limit on chaos. International anarchy the absence
of a higher government is not the same as chaos if basic principles
are observed. Sovereignty and non-intervention are two of the
principles that provide order in an anarchic world system.
At the same time, non intervention affects justice. Nation
states are communities of people who deserve the right to develop a
common life within their own state boundaries.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Introduction __ sovereignty and intervention:
Outsiders should respect their sovereignty and territorial
integrity. But not all states fit this ideal. There is often a
tension between justice and order that lead to inconsistencies
about whether to intervene or not.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Introduction __ intervention:
In its broadest definition, intervention refers to external
actions that influence the domestic affairs of another sovereign
state.
It could take the form of low coercion involving a speech
designed to influence domestic politics in another state. In the
1980s, the U.S. government established Radio Marti to broadcast its
messages against Fidel Castro in Cuba.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Introduction __ intervention:
Economic assistance is another way of influencing the domestic
affairs of another country. During the Cold War, American and
Soviet intelligence agencies often poured resources into foreign
elections.
In the past, South Korea spent a great deal of money to help
elect U.S. politicians who were more favorable to the interests of
South Korea.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Introduction __ intervention:
Toward the coercive end of the spectrum (high coercion) is
military action. For example, in 1980s, the US bombed Libya in
response to state supported terrorism, and the Soviet Union helped
one faction fighting a civil war in South Yemen.
Nor is it merely great powers that intervene with force. For
instance, in 1979 Tanzania sent troops into Uganda, and Vietnam
invaded Cambodia.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Introduction __ Judging intervention:
For the realists, the key values in international politics are
order and peace, and the key institutions is the balance of
power.
Therefore, for the realists, intervention can be justified when
it is necessary to maintain the balance of power and to maintain
order.
Realists might justify such interventions on the grounds they
preserve order and prevented the possibility of misunderstandings
and miscalculations that might escalate to war, particularly
nuclear war.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Introduction __ Judging intervention:
For cosmopolitans, the key value is justice and the key
international institution is a society of individuals. Therefore,
intervention can be justified if it promotes justice __ it is
permissible to intervene on the side of the good.
Hence, during the Cold War, liberal cosmopolitans said that
intervention was justified against the apartheid regime in South
Africa.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Introduction __ Judging intervention:
For moralists, the key value in international politics is the
autonomy of the state and its people. The key institution is a
society of states with certain rules and international law.
The most important of these rules is non-intervention in the
sovereign territory of another state. So for the state moralists,
intervention is rarely justified.
War, is justified to defend a states territorial integrity or to
defend its sovereignty against external aggression.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Definition__ International law
Traditionally, international law consisted of rules and
principles governing the relations and dealings of nations with
each other, though recently, the scope of international law has
been redefined to include relations between states and individuals,
and relations between international organizations.
Fundamentally, international law is the term commonly used for
referring to laws that govern the conduct of independent nations in
their relationships with one another.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Sources of International LawCustomary law and conventional law
are primary sources of international law.
Customary international law results when states follow certain
practices generally and consistently out of a sense of legal
obligation.
Conventional international law derives from international
agreements and may take any form that the contracting parties agree
upon. Created in 1945, the United Nations is responsible for much
of the current framework of international law.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
International Law and OrganizationSovereignty and
non-intervention are enshrined in international law and
organization.
Sometimes, people have problems in understanding international
law and organization because they use a domestic analogy.
But international organization is not like domestic government,
and international law is not like domestic law.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
International Law and OrganizationSovereignty and
non-intervention are enshrined in international law and
organization.
International organization is not an incipient world government
for two reasons.
First, the sovereignty of member states is protected in the
charters of most international organizations. Article 2:7 of the
Charter of the United Nations says:
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
International Law and OrganizationNothing in the Charter shall
authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters within
domestic jurisdiction.
In a sense, the organization is not an effort to replace the
nation- states.
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Development of Sovereignty1648 Principle of sovereignty is first
articulated in the Peace of WestphaliaEnded Thirty Years War by
giving rulers authority to determine religion within their own
territory
1713 Principle of sovereignty is solidified in the Treaty of
Utrecht [This was the treaty whereby the struggle between Great
Britain and France known in Europe as the War of the Spanish
Succession, and in America sometimes as "Queen Anne's War", was
brought to a close in 1713. By it France ceded to Great Britain her
claims in North America to the Hudson bay territories, to
Newfoundland, and to Acadia. ]
1945 Sovereign equality of members enshrined in United Nations
charter
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SovereigntySovereignty is the defining characteristic of the
state:
An entity is sovereign when it is the highest political
authority in the system.By definition, no other unit has coercive
authority within a state's territory, so therefore states are
sovereign.All sovereign states have nominally equal authority.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez CanalDomestic AnalogiesThe other
reason that international organization is not incipient world
government is because of its weakness.
There is an international judiciary in the form of the
International Court of Justice, which consists of 15 judges elected
for 9 year terms by the United Nations, but the International Court
of Justice is not a world supreme court. States may refuse its
jurisdiction, and a state may refuse to accept its judgments', even
if the state has accepted the courts jurisdiction. In the 1980s,
for example, the Reagan administration refused to accept an
International Court of Justice ruling that the United States had
acted illegally in mining the harbors' of Nicaragua.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Domestic AnalogiesInternational law basically reflects the
fragmented nature of international politics. The weak sense of
community means there is less willingness to obey or restrain
oneself out of sense of obligation or acceptance of authority.
The absence of a common executive with a monopoly on the
legitimate use of force means that sovereign states are in the
realm of self-help and in the realm of force and survival.
And when matters of survival come up, law usually takes second
place.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Predictability and Legitimacy Nonetheless, international law and
organization are an important part of political reality because
they affect the way states behave.
States have an interest in international law for two reasons:
predictability and legitimacy.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Predictability and Legitimacy Predictability:As interdependence
grows, contacts among nations grow and there are increasing
opportunities for friction __ e .g. trade, tourism, diplomatic
missions etc.
Handling such issues by international law and agreed principles
depoliticizes them and makes them predictable.
Predictability is necessary for transactions to flourish and for
the orderly handling of the conflicts that inevitably accompany
them.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Predictability and Legitimacy Legitimacy:Legitimacy is a second
reason why governments have an interest in international law. If a
states act are perceived as illegitimate, the costs of a policy
will be higher.
Therefore, states appeal to international law and organization
to legitimize their own policies or delegitimize others, and that
often shapes their tactics and outcomes.
The Suez Canal crisis of 1956 provides a good example.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Predictability and Legitimacy The Suez Canal was built by the
British and French in the nineteenth century, and became important
for Britains trade routes to India. In 1956, about a quarter of
British imports came through the Suez Canal.
In July 1956, President Gamal Nasser of Egypt nationalized the
Canal. Sir Anthony Eden, the British prime minister, saw this a
major threat to Britain. He regarded Nasser as a new Hitler, and he
drew analogies to the 1930s and Britains failure to take a stand
when Hitler entered the Rhineland.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Predictability and Legitimacy Britain feared that Nasser appeal
to Arab nationalism would undercut Britains position in the Middle
East, and worried about the fact that Nasser had accepted Soviet
arms, this, of course, being at the height of the Cold War.
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A Letter to President Dwight Eisenhower
In the nineteen-thirties Hitler established his position by a
series of carefully planned movements. These began with occupation
of the Rhineland and were followed by successive acts of aggression
against Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the West. His actions
were tolerated and excused by the majority of the population of
Western Europe. . . . Similarly the seizure of the Suez Canal is,
we are convinced, the opening gambit in a planned campaign designed
by Nasser to expel all Western influence and interests from Arab
countries. He believes that if he can get away with this, and if he
can successfully defy eighteen nations, his prestige in Arabia will
be so great that he will be able to mount revolutions of young
officers in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Iraq. We know that he
is already preparing a revolution in Iraq, which is most stable and
progressive. These new Governments will effect be Egyptian
satellites if not Russian ones. They will have place their united
oil resources under the
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A Letter to President Dwight Eisenhower _ cont
control of a United Arabia led by Egypt and under Russian
influence. When that moment comes Nasser can deny oil to western
Europe and we here shall be at his mercy.
---Prime Minister Anthony Eden, 1956.
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* Paradigms, Theories, and Levels of Analysis
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Predictability and Legitimacy In August and early September of
1956, Britain and the United States proposed a Suez Canal users
association, saying Egypt could nationalize the canal, but the
control would rest with those who used it for shipping. Nasser
rejected that compromise.In the meantime, Britain had developed a
secret plan with France and Israel. Israel, which had been
suffering from cross-border guerrilla attacks that Nasser
instigated, would invade Egypt. Britain and France would then
intervene on the pretext there was a threat to the Suez Canal.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Predictability and Legitimacy Thus Israel crossed into the Sinai
region of Egypt, arguing it was acting out of self defense. It
appealed to Article 51 of the UN Charter that permits self-dense as
the one legitimate use of force.
As Israel advanced into the Sinai toward the Suez Canal, Britain
and France said they had to intervene to prevent any damage to the
canal. The UN Security Council discussed the crisis, rejected the
pretext, and called for a cease-fire.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Predictability and Legitimacy Britain and France used their
vetoes to prevent the cease-fire. They wanted the intervention to
keep going until they could get rid of Nasser.Dag Hammarskjold, the
UN secretary general, working with Canadian foreign minister Lester
Pearson, devised a plan to separate the Israelis and the Egyptians
by inserting a UN peacekeeping force.
Then the British and the French would no longer have a pretext
for their intervention. A resolution in the General Assembly, where
there was no veto, authorized a UN force in the Sinai region.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Predictability and Legitimacy The United States did not support
its European allies, worrying that their intervention would
antagonize Arab nationalists and increase the opportunities for the
Soviet Union in the Middle East. Instead, the United States backed
Pearson and Hammarskjolds plan. To add to the pressure on Britain,
the United States refused to let the International Monetary Fund
(another international organization) provide a backup loan to
Britain, whose pound sterling was now under pressure.The British
and the French caved in and agreed to a cease-fire. The Soviets at
this time were busy intervening in Hungary, which was trying to
achieve its own freedom.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Predictability and Legitimacy The British and French had to
accept that the cease-fire partly because of American pressure, and
partly because they had been caught on their own legal pretext.
There was now another way of separating the Israelis and the
Egyptians and preventing damage to the canal.On November 15, the
first UN expeditionary force was inserted into the Sinai between
the opposing forces, and later in December, the United Nations took
on the task of clearing the ships that had been sunk in the
canal.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Conclusion _lessons The use and abuse of international law and
organizations played an essential part in the politics of the Suez
crisis.__ time for a review of the Veto power status of a few
In major conflicts of interest, international law may not
restrain states, but if often help shape the flow of policy. __
Iraq war and U.S. elections
National v International Law
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THE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
DefinitionInternational law is the collection of rules and norms
that states and other actors feel an obligation to obey in their
mutual relations and commonly do obey
Conwey W. Henderson, Understanding International Law, 2010.
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THE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
DefinitionIn the past, international law was commonlydescribed
as the law that regulates the relations between states, amongst
each other or the system of legal norms regulating mutual relations
between states, or the set of rules recognized by states and
concerning their external relations, or the set of rules binding
within the international community.
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THE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
An interesting definition of international law was formulated in
the 1970s by a Russian international lawyer Prof. G. I.Tunkin:
contemporary international law is the aggregate of norms which are
created by agreement between states of different social systems,
reflect the concordant wills of states and have a generally
democratic character,regulate relations between them in the process
of struggle and cooperation in the direction of ensuring peace and
peaceful coexistence and freedom andindependence of peoples, and
are secured when necessary by coercion effectuated by states
individually or collectively.
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THE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
Some examples of more recent definitions of international law
include:The system of law regulating the interrelationship of
sovereign states and their rights and duties with regard to one
another. In addition, certain international organizations (such as
the United Nations), companies, and sometimes individuals (e.g. in
the sphere of human rights) may have rights or duties under
international law.(Oxford Dictionary of Law, 1997, p. 240)
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THE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW Today, international law refers
to those rules and norms which regulate the conduct of states and
other entities which at any time are recognized as being endowed
with international personality, for example international
organizations and individuals, in their relations with each other
(Rebecca M.M. Wallace, International Law (Sweet and Maxwell, 1995,
p. 1).
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THE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
International law is the body of rules which are legally binding
on states in their intercourse with other states. These rules are
primarily those which govern the relations of states, but states
are not the only subjects of international law. International
organizations and, to some extent, also individuals may be subjects
of rights conferred and duties imposed by international law
(Oppenheims International Law, ninth edition, Volume I Peace,
edited by Sir Robert Jennings and Sir Arthur Watts (London:
Longman, 1996), p. 4.
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THE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
The Roles of International Law:
To arrange for the cooperation most actors wish to have most of
the time;
To identify the membership of an international society of
sovereign states;
To regulate the competing interests of the various actors and to
carry their agreements into the future;
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THE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAWTo empower weaker states as they
press for change against the will of the powerful;
To promote justice;
To outlaw war.
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THE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
Is international law a real law?International law is practiced
on a dailybasis in the Foreign Offices, national courts and other
governmental organs of states;The evidence is that reference to
international law has been a normal part of the process of
decision-making I. BrownlieStates do not claim that they are above
the law or that international law does not bind them;
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THE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
The overwhelming majority of international legal rules are
consistently obeyed;It is probably the case that almost all nations
observe almost all principles of international law and almost all
of their obligations almost all of the time (L. Henkin, How Nations
Behave, p. 47).
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THE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
Basic characteristics of international law:International law has
only a limited number of developed legal institutions; In
comparison with national law, international law is
decentralised:
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THE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAWBasic characteristics of
international lawDecentralised international
law-making;Decentralised international law
enforcement;Decentralised, voluntary international law
adjudication.
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THE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAWWhy is international law binding
onStates and other actors?The command theory;__the command of the
sovereign, backed up by sanctions.
The consensual theory/consensus;__ decisions as free agents
entering intoconsensualrelationships.Natural law. ___ The first is
that, when we focus on God's role as the giver of the natural law,
the natural law is just one aspect of divine providence; and so the
theory of natural law is from that perspective just one part among
others of the theory of divine providence. The second is that, when
we focus on the human's role as recipient of the natural law, the
natural law constitutes the principles of practical rationality,
those principles by which human action is to be judged as
reasonable or unreasonable; and so the theory of natural law is
from that perspective the preeminent part of the theory of
practical rationality.
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Issues in International Law Intervention, Institutions, and
Regional conflicts: The Suez Canal
Conclusion _lessons Law is part of the power struggle within
national politics.__ governments find it important to make legal
arguments or to take resolutions of international organizations
into account shows they are not completely significant: governments
may be trapped by their own legal excuses.
The rise of International Law over Domestic Law: The Case of the
International Court of Justice (ICC)
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Issues in International Law
Thanks for your attention
Comments ?Questions
*****************Source:
dss.ucsd.edu/~lwimberl/Lecture01.ppt****************Source:
https://www.google.com.gh/?gws_rd=cr&ei=ds1CU570EITjOt-4gJgB#q=Rights+and+International+Law+ppt&start=10*Source:
http://legaltheoryandjurisprudence.blogspot.com/2008/05/command-theory-of-law-brief-summary-and.html
*Source:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/natural-law-ethics/**