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The essence of law and the nature of international law
The particular angle of the general notion of law presented in this book This book defnes the general notion of law primarily with an emphasis on the formal characteristics of law and mainly with the purpose of highlighting the specifcs of international law.
Introspecting into the specifics of international law There are many theoretical models which aim to defne the system of rules known as international law. Some of these explanations are outlined in this book, with the intention of making the essence of international law easy to grasp for a would-be reader. To introspect into the peculiarities of international law, it is necessary to have a clear picture of the following starting points in mind: 1
2 3
The law is composed of two legal systems – national law (also referred to as the municipal law, domestic law, or internal law) and international law (also referred to as public international law). As regards national law, it has different appearance in different countries. Although there can be no simple answer to the question ‘What is law?’ nevertheless, there are some common characteristics of law that unite the law in all its forms, distinguishing it from other normative phenomena.
LEGAL SYSTEMS legal systems legal families civil law family common law family customary law family religious law family mixed national legal systems family precedents
Diversity of the legal systems As noted earlier, legal systems exist in the form of either national law (encompassing independent national legal systems of the states) or international law. The national law, in its turn, according to the widely recognised generalisation, is made up today of fve legal families.1 1 For instance, it is named by Rene David as the family of laws or legal families: ‘[T]he Romano-Germanic family, the Common law family and the family of Socialist law. These three groups, whatever their merits
