Definitions of International Law

Ask ten people in a Bandra cafe what international law is and you will hear ten answers: the rules between countries, the UN's rules, the Geneva Conventions, what the ICJ decides. Each answer is partly right. Jurists have tried for centuries to write one sentence that catches all of it, and the definitions they wrote tell you how each generation understood the subject. Which definition should you use in an exam, and why do they differ?

In two minutes

Every classical definition says that international law is a body of rules binding on states in their mutual relations; the modern definitions add international organisations and individuals, and drop the word civilised.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Public International Law on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.