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Old 05-14-2004, 10:51 AM   #72
Timber Loftis
40th Level Warrior
 

Join Date: July 11, 2002
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 11,916
Damned skippy! International law is just contract law anyway, and it's all really mushy stuff. I note that there are ways to enforce international law -- oh wait, most countries agreed since the beginning that they want an "escape hatch" to preserve national sovereignty if internatnional law gets too silly or becomes something they can't abide.

A system of law is only as strong as its enforceability. The US abides by international law, and pays the applicable penalty when it does not. Of course, often there's not an applicable penalty. Such is life, too bad, so sad, boo hoo.

There were times in history when the US and other countries would have agreed to stronger international law -- a big one, for instance, is the compulsive jurisdiction of the ICJ. They missed that opportunity, however, and left ICJ jurisdiction voluntary. Then, countries started pulling their jurisdiction waivers. France got pissed when it got sued for setting nukes off in the South Pacific and pulled its waiver. The US got pissed when it got sued for a harbor bombing in Nicaragua, and pulled its waiver.

The international community missed a big opportunity, perhaps the only one until after the next world war, to get the nations to agree to really truly enforceable laws while they were all seeing things the same way for a while. That time passed, and now we disagree on a lot. I actually thought that was a bad thing until 9/11, and now I'm glad we're not subject to EU or world approval for everything we do.
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