International law refers to the customs, norms, principles and rules that establish binding obligations among states and other international actors. The main sources of international law are conventions, treaties, customs, and judicial decisions. However, international law has weaknesses as well, such as vague obligations from treaties, lack of an effective legal enforcement system, and powerful states' ability to ignore laws that conflict with their interests. Nonetheless, international law still has enduring value in that states usually comply due to identity, self-interest, or fear of reprisals, and it can shape norms and identities over time.

1. International Law
Meaning. Sources. Weakness.
Enduring Value.

2. The Meaning of International Law
• Defining international law:
– The customs, norms, principles, rules and
other legal relations among states and other
international legal personality that establish
binding obligations.
– A body of rules which binds states and other
agents in world politics with one another.

3. Sources of International Law
• Sources:
1. Conventions and treaties
2. International customs
3. Generally recognized principles of law
4. International judicial decisions, writing of
recognized scholars and treatises.

4. Weakness of International Law
• Vague and conflicting obligations—
largely the result of importance of
treaties and conventions
• No effective legal system
1. Lack of compulsory jurisdiction
a. International Court of Justice
b. Optional Clause
2. Absence of judicial hierarchy

5. Weakness of International Law
• Law and Power
1. Powerful states able to ignore law when
it conflicts with their interests
2. Law itself is often a reflection of power
and interests

6. The Enduring Value of International
Law
• False lessons of spectacular failures
1. Example: Kellogg-Briand Pact
2. Need realistic vision of what international
law can and cannot accomplish
3. Positive v. normative law traditions

7. The Enduring Value of
International Law
• States usually abide by international law
1.Identitive compliance
2.Utilitarian compliance
3.Coercive compliance (possibility of
reprisals)
• Liberalism and international law:
embodying shared values
• Constructivism and international law:
shaping norms and identities

8. Conclusion
International Law, neither an irrelevancy
nor panacea.