The Yegiora Files

As defined by Oxford (2003), international law is “a set of rules generally recognize by civilized nations as governing their conduct towards each other and towards each other’s citizens”. This definition gives us a good understanding of how IR302 is connected to the program because it talks about rules governing the behaviour of nations.

Apart from other strands within the program, the international relations strand is a strong strand with around 6 units. The field of international relations is defined by Goldstein (2005) as;
“The relationships among the world’s state governments and the connection of those relationships with other actors (such as the United Nations, multinational corporations, and individuals), with other social relationships (including economic, culture and domestic politics), and with geographic and historical influences” (p. 556). In international relations, nations operate in an anarchic system where there is no central form of authority unlike the domestic enviro…

Sources of International law
Municipal law is different to international law. One clear cut difference is the fact that sources of law at the domestic level are acts, statues or organic laws made by the legislative arm of the government. Another source is judicial case law, which refers to decisions made by the judiciary which are not outlined in any acts, statues or organic laws made by the legislature.
Thus the legislature and the judiciary both have prominent roles to play in making and interpreting various laws. 
Sadly, that is not case in international law. There is no legislative body to make international laws and no judicial body to interpret and extend the law. 
This problem stems from the anarchic nature of the international system and the competing nature of sovereign states. To better understand we go back to the Westphalian principle of legal equality, no state is more powerful than the other hence anarchy and unavoidable competition.
Goldstein’s explanation Goldstein (2005) i…

The globalization debate is unending. In hindsight, as a process it has occurred significantly throughout history. What is different about this new paradigm of globalization? Is it because of the triumph of liberalism? This article will try to elaborate further by comparing the different articles by Fukuyama, Huntington and Higgott in an attempt to answer both questions.
In Francis Fukuyama’s “The End of History” he was very critical when he talked about the triumph of economic and political liberalism. He saw that mankind was at the end of the road in terms of the ideological warfare. There was no anti-thesis to liberalism after its defeat of Fascism and Communism.
On the contrary, when analyzing the concept of history as a dialectical process coined by Hegel, ideas define and drive the material world. In other words, evolution began with ideas, the human mind which produces the ideas is fallible (prone to imperfections). This fallibility of the human mind means that the newer ideas…