The Fallacy Of Public International Law
- IJLLR Journal
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
Aashish Belagodu Sathvik, Manipal Law School, Bangalore
ABSTRACT
The paper examines the idea that public international law often presents itself as fair and equal, but in practice has served the interests of powerful states more than the weaker ones. It analyses this pattern from early legal systems, through colonisation by the west, to the modern United Nations system, showing how law and power have remained closely connected. The paper argues that although international law has contributed to important developments such as human rights, treaty making, and decolonisation, its enforcement is still uneven and selective. It concludes that unless stronger and fairer enforcement mechanisms are developed, public international law will continue to protect hierarchy instead of true equality among states.
A. Introduction
The history of Public International Law (PIL) did not begin in 1945 with the victory of the Allied powers against the Axis coalition in the Second World War, but rather, forms of PIL have been documented as governing varying degrees of bilateral and multilateral relationships between civilisations, clans, and tribes since time immemorial. This includes, but is not limited to, the treaties of Mesopotamia governing relationships between cities, Roman jus gentium, Islamic Siyar, and other mediaeval treaty practices.
There are a multitude of differences between historical forms of International Law and modern- day codified PIL, but one aspect of its application remains the same, namely the law being applied asymmetrically against weaker polities and functioning as a manager of hierarchy rather than an equaliser of state power. This article intends to examine the fallacy of public international law and how it has been used to serve the interests of a select few powerful states while largely ignoring the interests of the majority by drawing on historical and modern accounts of the application of this relatively weak branch of law.
