International Law - Emman's report

8/8/2019 International Law - Emman's report

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INTERNATIONAL LAW

IN A MULTICULTURAL WORLD


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International Law in a Multicultural World

Adda B. Bozeman

She observed a significant incongruency between a culturally

diverse world on one hand and an international law drawn fromthe context of Euro-American jurisprudence on the other.

She believes the fissures of cultural diversity among legalcultures of Africa and Asia, the communist world and the Westernworld will not permit the world to evolve as one legal system

She concluded that the dominance of a Western political ispassing into history and that the rest of the world will not abide byWestern standards of international law.


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Cultural differences among

national societies do not

undermine international law.

He believes that the

weakness of international

law stems less from

different outlooks and muchmore from similar but

clashing interests

anatagonistically pursued.


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Third World Countries (LDCs)

Have remarkably embraced elements of Eurocentric

sytem and are using international law and diplomacy to

redress their grievances against Western states.

European Communist StatesThese former communist states seem eager to embrace

the rules and norms of their past Western opponents as

long as doing so brings peace and prosperity.

Cultural RegionsThey have their own values and practices that set them

apart from the international system at large concerning

international law.


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Latin America

The Calvo Doctrine, claims that a state isnot responsible for harms done against aliens

on its soil during an insurrection.

Inter-American Convention for the Granting of

Asylum of 1928

The Calvo Doctrine, claims that a state is

not responsible for harms done against aliens

on its soil during an insurrection.

Inter-American Convention for the Granting

of Asylum of 1928


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Legal cultures around the world containdifferent histories, attitudes, and principles.


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Common law countries cover contracts, torts(damages), and remedies, not only through lawsof legislative bodies but through precedentsdrawn from specific cases and disputes.

Common law also derives from long sandingcustom.

Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand,

and the United States are states with commonlaw.


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Civil law has a long tradition, going back at least to the RomanEmpire.

Civil law depends on extensively coded rules and regulations thatattempt, well ahead of any anticipated problems, to cover every

aspect of regulated life, including business activities.

European, Latin American, and some African and Asian stateshave civil law legal traditions.

Germany, as a civil law state, has great importance because ofits central role in the European Union and as the leading stateinducing Russia and Eastern Europe to join the capitalistic worldsystem.


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Socialist law (or communist law) is a legal traditionthat began with the Russian revolution of 1917.

The socialist law tradition called for highly

centralized economies, usually planned in five-yeartime segments. State ownership of almost allproperty left little tolerance or private property.

Marxist, anticapitalist values spread to China, Cuba,Eastern Europe, North Korea, Vietnam, and a fewcountries in Africa.


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Islamic law is Gods law revealed in the Quran, and Islamic law isoften one and the same as secular law in Islamic states.

The content ofIslamic law poses some difficulties forinternational trade, such as treating interests on loans as usury

and making interest rates illegal. Contracts on the other hand,are similar enough as a concept between the West and Islamicstates to allow a huge amount of trade.

The Islamic law tradition is important because it applies in a large

number of countries, including most of the countries of NorthAfrica, the Middle East, Central Asia, Indonesia, and Malaysia inSoutheast Asia.


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Three levels of compliance in the context ofinternational law:

First, we can speak of legal norms being so

fundamental that compliance is thought of as universal

whether or not a particular state has consented to the

norm.

Second, a generalinternational law derives from a

multilateral treaty wit many signatories. Most of the

world accepts this kind of law and, at some time in the

future, this law has a chance to become universal.

Third, there is aparticularinternational law that binds

only two states or a limited group of states.

Some international law are germane only for a specific culturalregion.


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In the current era, we rightfully

pay attention to the multicultural

nature of the world, and many

scholars are sensitive to differentcultures, arguing they have equal

worth.

Despite these fair-minded academic views, Western conquest

of the past and more recently, Western capitalism anddemocracy appear to be the driving forces behind the

transcendence of Western norms of law over those of other

cultures such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam.

International Law - Emman's report

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