International Law and National Law

Every nation is expected to obey international law. Some nations make international law automatically part of the law of their law. The US Constitution designates ratified treaties, along with the Constitution itself and federal statutes, the supreme law of the land (Article 6) and empowers Congress “to define and punish… offences against the Law of Nations” (Article 1, Section 8). Customary international law is automatically incorporated into the US legal system as federal common or written law.

In cases involving international law, US state and federal courts presume that US law conforms to international law; such an attitude has been urged consistently by the Supreme Court of the United States. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, treaties do not become effective in national law until they are enacted by Parliament. In other countries, a treaty or customary international law is given constitutional status superior to national legislation. How a sovereign state adopts and applies international law is generally left to its discretion, so long as it conforms to the law in the end.

Whatever the constitution or legal system of a nation, it cannot use its domestic law as an excuse to breach an international agreement or violate an international rule. This was made clear during the war crimes trials held in Nurnberg, Germany, following World War II. The Nurnberg tribunals rejected the defensethat certain acts, such as the killing of prisoners of war, were permitted under the domestic laws of Nazi Germany. The tribunals held that such laws were null and void because they contravened the generally valid rules of warfare. It also held that the individuals responsible for issuing and executing such laws were criminally responsible for grave breaches of international laws. Today, international human rights courts often declare national laws incompatible with international rules and may award compensation to those whose rights have been violated.

Microsoft Encarta 2008

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In a very little while the animals had destroyed everything that reminded them of Mr. Jones. Napoleon then led them back to the store-shed and served out a double ration of corn to everybody, with two biscuits for each dog. Then they sang 'Beasts of England' from end to end seven times running, and after that they settled down for the night and slept as they had never slept before. But they woke at dawn as usual, and suddenly remembering the glorious thing that had happened, they all raced out into the pasture together. A little way down the pasture there was a knoll that commanded a view of
most of the farm. The animals rushed to the top of it and gazed round them in the clear morning light. Yes, it was theirs--everything that they could see was theirs! In the ecstasy of that thought they gambolled round and round, they hurled themselves into the air in great leaps of excitement.
They rolled in the dew, they cropped mouthfuls of the sweet summer grass, they kicked up clods of the black earth and snuffed its rich scent. Then they made a tour of inspection of the whole farm and surveyed with speechless admiration the ploughland, the hayfield, the orchard, the pool, the spinney. It was as though they had never seen these things before, and even now they could hardly believe that it was all their own. Then they filed back to the farm buildings and halted in silence outside the door of the farmhouse. That was theirs too, but they were frightened to go inside. After a moment, owever, Snowball and Napoleon butted the door open with their shoulders and the animals entered in single file, walking with the utmost care for fear of disturbing anything. They tiptoed from room to room, afraid to speak above a whisper and gazing with a kind of awe at the unbelievable luxury, at the beds with their feather mattresses, the looking-glasses, the horsehair sofa, the Brussels carpet, the lithograph of Queen Victoria over the drawing-room mantelpiece. They were lust coming down the stairs when Mollie was discovered to be missing. Going back, the others found that she had remained behind in the best bedroom. She had taken a piece of blue ribbon from Mrs. Jones's dressing-table, and was holding it against her shoulder and admiring herself in the glass in a very foolish manner. The others reproached her sharply, and they went outside. Some hams hanging in the kitchen were taken out for burial, and the barrel of beer in the scullery was stove in with a kick from Boxer's hoof, otherwise nothing in the house was touched. A unanimous resolution was passed on the spot that the farmhouse should be preserved as a museum. All were agreed that no animal must ever live there. The animals had their breakfast, and then Snowball and Napoleon called them together again.
"Comrades," said Snowball, "it is half-past six and we have a long day before us. Today we begin the hay harvest. But there is another matter that must be attended to first."
The pigs now revealed that during the past three months they had taught themselves to read and write from an old spelling book which had belonged to Mr. Jones's children and which had been thrown on the rubbish heap. Napoleon sent for pots of black and white paint and led the way down to the five-barred gate that gave on to the main road. Then Snowball (for it was Snowball who was best at writing) took a brush between the two knuckles of his trotter, painted out MANOR FARM from the top bar of the gate and in its place painted ANIMAL FARM. This was to be the name of the farm from now onwards. After this they went back to the farm buildings, where Snowball and Napoleon sent for a ladder which they caused to be set against the end wall of the big barn. They explained that by their studies of the past three months the pigs had succeeded in reducing the principles of Animalism to Seven Commandments. These Seven Commandments would now be inscribed on the wall; they would form an unalterable law by which all the animals on Animal Farm must live for ever after. With some difficulty (for it is not easy for a pig to balance himself on a ladder) Snowball climbed up and set to work, with Squealer a few rungs below him holding the paint-pot. The Commandments were written on the tarred wall in great white letters that could be read thirty yards away. They ran thus:
THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS
1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Text 6

Town Hall Stasi are to be stripped of the power to spy on residents suspected of “bin crimes”and dog fouling.

Roles unveiled by the Home Office today will prevent councils from using the anti-terror Regulation of Investigatory Powers Acts for trivial offences.

It follows a string of revelations by the Daily Mail about over-zealous officials using hidden cameras and even paying undercover agents to trail the law-abiding public.

These include spying on people suspected of putting bins out early, littering and cheating school catchment area rules. All of these are highlighted in today’s draft code as cases where undercover surveillance could not be justified.

Launching a consultation on the future of RIPA, ahead of a final set of rules due later this year, the Home Office raises the prospect of Town Hall being stripped of the right to use the Act.

The new rules are also likely to see the power to make a RIPA authorization passed to executive officers only, rather than low-ranking bureaucrats.

The local government minister, John Healy is writing to councils to say their future use of the power must be ‘proportionate’. It follows several cases in which innocent people were targeted under the Act, including a family who were spied on for two weeks by Poole Borough Council, on Dorset. It wrongly suspected them of cheating school catchment area rules.

The Mail also revealed that West Lindsey District council, in Lincolnshire, had placed

Guildford Council, in Surrey, used covert morning and night site observations and a secret test purchaser to see if a nursery was breaching its planning permission by selling potted plants.

Mendip District Council sent cover officers to a bird market in Somerset to check whether it was unlawfully selling parrots to the public.

Their activities have prompted comparison to the Stasi secret police in the former East Germany. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said of the draft rules:”Our country has a proud tradition of individual freedom. This involves freedom from unjustified interference by the State. But it also includes freedom from interference by those who would do us harm.

‘The government is responsible for protecting both types of freedom. In order to do this, we must ensure that the police and other public authorities have the power they need. But we must also ensure that those powers are not used inappropriately of excessively. The Government has absolutely no interest in spying on law-abiding people going about their everyday lives.’

However, despite the proposed crackdown, councils are likely to fight to keep many of their powers.

A spokesman for the Local Government Association said:’Parliament clearly intended that councils should use powers under RIPA, and they are being used to respond to residents’ complaints about serious criminals, like fly-trippers, rogue traders and people defrauding the benefits system.’

Liberal Democrat spokesman Chris Huhne said:”This consultation is a tacit admission by the Government that surveillance society has got out of hand. For too long, powers we were told would be used to fight terrorism and organized crime have been used to spy on people’s kids, pets and bins.

‘Without reform, RIPA will continue to be a snoopers’charter. Ministers must ensure that this consultation results in real changes and not just warm words.’

Daily Mail

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