Nature and importance of international law

According to positivist, international law is not a law. Austin opined that, international law is nothing but an international morality, whereas, Holland calls it a vanishing point of jurisprudence.

According to Positive School of Law, international law is not issued as a command of sovereign. International law is purely based on the consent of the States. Thus it cannot be called as a law. On the other side, according to the Natural Law School, international law is supreme law having originated from the God itself, and must be followed by the States.

On the other side, historical and sociological jurisprudence differ from the Austinian theory of law. They holds that, many communities were existed in the past without any formal legislative authority. Law is enforced by its observance.

The legally binding force of international law has been asserted and accepted over and over again in the various international conferences. Thus the United Nations was created by its Charter under international law.

Advantages of international law

1. International law governs not only a community of States but an organized international society.
2. International law is not exclusively juridical.
3. International law follows that, the traditional distinction between legal and political questions, between the domain of law and the domain of politics is considerably modified at the present time.
4. International law is not only concerned with the delimitation of the rights of the States but also harmonizing with them.
5. International law particularly takes into account the general interest.
6. International law also take into account all possible aspects of every case.
7. International law lays down, besides rights, obligations towards international society, and sometimes States are entitled to exercise certain rights only if they have complied with correlative duties.
8. International law adapts itself to the needs of international life and develops side by side with it.
9. International law condemns abus de droit (i.e., abuse of law).