What is international law?

International law refers to those rules that guide all relationships amongst states, international organizations, and persons. It creates the necessary environment for peaceful coexistence and eases the task of international cooperation in matters affecting the global community. Its underlying aim is to foster peace, human rights, and justice at the global level. Such principles are guidelines for states concerning how they are to behave toward one another with respect to different matters such as trade, the environment, human rights, etc. There are also issues relating to the global commons jointly owned resources such as oceans, atmosphere, and sky.

International law sources are more or less treaties or formal agreements with other countries. Then there are international customs that develop over time; there are general principles of law, which mean the basic legal concepts accepted by every country around the world; there are resolutions of such organizations as the UN.

These sources lay the basis for norms binding upon every state in their international conduct. Certain laws, like the Geneva Conventions, which stipulate how to treat humans during wars, the Kyoto Protocol, which serves in the fight against climate change, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which ensures rights and welfare for children all over the globe, are examples. International law, therefore, provides a basis for creating a just world, free from conflicts, through the aforementioned rules.